


LUCKY

by Midaxz



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-07
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 07:02:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2419463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midaxz/pseuds/Midaxz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A boy wakes up without knowing anything about himself. His name, age and whole life before is totally blank, but he's sure about one thing: the world isn't normally full of monsters. Meeting enemies and friends, the boy gets out of one adventure and stumbles into the next. Soon, he faces the biggest adventure and task he'd ever had in his short, memory-less life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Getting some LUCK™

**Author's Note:**

> Well, not all chapters are grammatically corrected and stuff. I've had my teacher to look 'em through, but he's not the fastest one, eh. 
> 
> But I hope you don't die, at least!

_“What happened?”_

His eyes flew open and he coughed painfully as he tried to sit up. A wave of pain flowed over him and forced him back against the ground. His tired eyes stared up at the blue sky. The wind swept between the trees, making the leaves rustle. Otherwise, it was silent. No birds singing or sound of another living being.

_“Where am I?”_

The boy started to gain to consciousness. He looked at his surroundings, trying to locate where he was. He didn’t see that much from the lying position, he must have been in a hole of some sort. He noticed trees, lots of trees; maybe he was in a forest, and cables hanging in the air above him.

The boy moaned and managed to sit up. Another wave of pain hit him in the chest and he turned to vomit on the ground next to him. ‘Yuk’ he said and made a disgusted face. His head felt like it had been hit by a giant sledgehammer. He touched it carefully and a flash of pain ran through his head and down the neck. His once blonde hair felt dirty and sticky, was he bleeding?At least he had been; he could feel dried blood on his face and his clothes were all stained with a dark-red color. Jeans, t-shirt and leatherjacket, they were all dirty and ripped. He felt sad about the jacket; it must be of importance to him.

_“Who am I?”_

He looked at his hands like they were someone else’s. He couldn’t remember anything, not even his name or how old he was. He tried, but the headache got worse the more he focused. The boy clenched his fist and looked up at the sky. He would never get any answer if he stayed there; he’d better try to figure out where he was. He looked at his surroundings again. Now when he sat up, he could already analyze much more than before. He was indeed in a forest. And the cables were… A chill ran down the teenager’s back. He was sitting in the middle of a railway track. Those cables were an overhead contact line that hangs above the tracks, giving the train power. The boy’s heart clapped wildly inside his chest. His ears started ringing, or was it a train’s whistle? His whole body shook of fear; what if a train came right at that moment and mashed him? 

Crackling sounds from behind made him turn around. He gave up a high-pitched scream and sheltered his head with his arms. When nothing happened for a few minutes, the boy peeked up from his genius hiding place. There was a train there, but it didn’t move. After looking a little bit closer, he saw it wasn’t even turned against him. It had three goods van behind it. The train was smoking and pretty badly damaged; whoever that had been sitting in there and driving that thing must have been crushed. The vans seemed untouched and the sounds must been the cracklings from fire flames from somewhere inside. Could trains explode like cars did?

The teenager decided to move away from the tracks; who knows when next one arrived. He crawled up to the side of the railway and further, it’s always good to be on the safe side. He sat at the edge of the forest and breathed heavily. His whole body ached and he felt like he could lie down and sleep for an eternity or two, but if he did, would he ever wake up? He was too scared to try.

The boy decided to at least find a road and hopefully find a way to get away from there. Maybe he should find a hospital or someone that could care about his wounds. He himself had no clue how to do it. He didn’t even know how serious his wounds were. What if he had damaged an important organ and was dying? The boy felt how his pulse rose, but forced himself to take a deep breath. ‘Focus’ he thought ‘First things first, find a road!’ It wasn’t hard; he saw it almost as fast he’d succeed to stand up on his legs. He wangled and had to keep a hand on a tree to keep his balance. His head was higher above the ground than he’d imagined. He sure was pretty tall!

He took help from the trees to keep his balance while he staggered towards the road. After much stumbling and falling over, he finally got to the road. It looked like a dump; bits of metal, rubber and glass were scattered all over the place. The smell of smoke and burnt rubber stung in his nose and gave him nausea. _What has happened here?_ The boy thought and looked around. He felt how he started to get dizzy and decided to get away from the place. He randomly chose a way and went to the right. The more he got away from the railway, the fresher the air got and soon the burnt smell disappeared. The teenager took a deep breath and then continued walking.

Soon, he saw something down the road. It was a wagon of an old model. It had several signs with glowing italic red letters, but for him they didn’t make any sense. _I can’t read?_ he thought and inspected the wagon. It was decorated with stars, crystals and hanging purple fabric. One of the signs held a picture of a crystal ball; it was probably a fortune teller. The door of the wagon was open and the boy walked up and peeked inside: ‘Hello?’

The wagon was like a mixture of a lucky charm-kitsch shop and the pantry of a mad man that believed in every suspicion that existed. There were shelves full of cat statues and jewelry shaped as horseshoes and four-leafed cloves along with bloody hare-feet and stuffed cats with black fur and dead magpies hanging from the ceiling and dripping blood. A desk with a purple tablecloth stood in the middle of the wagon with empty chairs on either side. Candles were scattered all over the wagon, burning with a mysterious purple flame. The smell was unbearable, the magpies and hare-feet must have been laying there for a really long time. He had to cover his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his jacket. This was probably not a place where he could find the help he needed. But before he could reach the doorway a chubby woman suddenly appeared in a big purple cloud, making him jump off his shoes by fear and surprise. She sat in the chair on the other side of the table, smiling with an almost completely toothless smile. She had a purple turban with smeary brown hair randomly sticking out and a dark blue dress with purple stars and a purple scarf around her shoulders.

 

‘A customer! Welcome, I’m Madame Luck, have a seat!’ she said happily and gave him a smile that could be cute if it wasn’t for the lack of teeth and her white and empty eyes.

‘Uh, no, sorry’ the teenager stuttered nervously ‘I was just about to go…’

‘Oh, no, you can’t come here without even buy a LUCK™ ?’ she said and handed him a basket of, what was it? Oysters? ‘It’s like fortune cookies, but with something better inside’ she explained, like she had read his thoughts.

‘Uh, no thanks, I just wanna know the way to nearest town, or something…’ the boy said and laughed nervously as he slowly backed up towards the door.

‘I think you want more, right?’ Madame Luck tilted her head and looked at his direction. Then she shook the basked and slimed again ‘What about a LUCK™? They brings luck with them’

‘Luck?’ the teenager raised an eyebrow. He had no idea what she meant by that. ‘No thanks… I’m fine’

‘Huh? You don’t want luck?’ the Madame said surprised ‘But it can get you _anything_!’

The teenager gave her a confused look. He didn’t want anything; he just wanted to know what had happened to him.

Madame Luck smiled ‘It’s your lucky day today’ She said cheerfully ‘We have a special offering! Buy a LUCK™ and I’ll answer you a question for free! Come on, don’t be shy. I know loads of stuff! Not everyone has so much luck to get such an offering’

_Why would he buy luck if he already was lucky?_

‘Oh, please dear young one, don’t you have _any_ questions?’

Yes he had, he had a lot of questions, like who he was and why he’d woken up on a railway track. But how could an old lady like her know that? He didn’t really believe in supernatural stuff and fortune tellers just felt too silly.

‘The special offer is only today, you better take the chance now when you can’ she continued ‘Not everyone got that much luck as you!’

The teenager thought for a while. It was a really creepy place, but what if the Madame really could tell him who he was? Or what he was doing here, or any of all the other questions that filled his brain to the brim. He could always try; he didn’t know what to do anyway. If she couldn’t give him an answer, he wouldn’t lose anything, because he already had nothing.

‘Fine’ he said and sat down and took a fortune cookie and put it in his pocket ‘A question, then; who am I?’

Madame Lucky went silent a few seconds before she started to laugh. Her laugh sounded like a horrible mixture of a magpie’s cawing and those magic glitter-sound effects in cartoons. ‘No, no. That’s not a real question, dear’ she said and shook her head ‘I answer only _one_ question’

‘That _was_ one question’ he complained

‘That was a question that summarized several question’ Madame Luck scowled and made a serious face ‘Invalid question. Ask a new one!’

The boy snorted and glared at the witch-like lady.

‘Fine, could you just tell me _something_ about me?’ he asked.

The Madame thought for a while, staring at the teenager with her creepy white eyes. ‘Sure’ she whispered and leaned forward ‘You’re fourteen years old’. Then she sat up straight and talked with a cheerful voice; ‘So, that’ll be one drachma’

Madame Luck started to dig around under the desk and fished up a cashbox. The boy rose so hasty his chair fell over.

‘What the heck do you mean with that answer?!’ he yelled

‘You wanted me to tell something about you and I did’ she answered and nodded as if she was agreeing with herself.

‘But…’ He was speechless. Of all the questions he could have gotten an answer to, and she just says how old he is ‘I want a better answer! It was invalid!’

‘Bah, my answers are never invalid!’ the Madame snapped ‘You could have used your mind and asked a better question! Now, my payment’

She was right; he could have asked her a much better question. He wanted to beat himself up, but the Madame drummed on the cashbox and wanted her payment.

‘Another cookie, then!’ the teenager said, the Madame thought for a while.

‘Sure, but payment first, now!’ the Madame said at last. The teenager got a really bad feeling about her, she was probably going to trick him, but what could he do?

The teenager shot her an angry look as he checked his pocket. Not until then, he realized that he didn’t even know if he had any money, but fortunately, he found a black wallet with Pikachu-motive. He turned it inside out on the desk. He had several coins and a few paper-cashes. Madame Luck picked up a dollar cash a looked at it like it was from a foreign land. Then she turned against one of those purple candles and put it in the flame.

‘What are you doing?’ the boy yelled.

‘Invalid payment, one drachma, please!’ Madame Luck made a sour face that made her look like a really mean witch

‘But that’s all I’ve got! And what the heck is a drachma?’ he complained

‘You don’t have any drachma?’ the woman widened her eyes and looked surprised, then the anger started to bubble inside her and she rose from her chair ‘You tricked me! I don’t like being tricked!’

The Madame seemed to grow bigger, or was it the teenager that shrank? Madame Luck’s eyes glowed purple and she started to mess in a weird language. Mirrors popped up from nowhere and fell down to the floor and broke into millions shards, the hare-feet came to life and jumped around inside the wagon, the stuffed black cats started to meow and the magpies cawed and flapped with their wings. Statues and jewelry fell to the floor as the whole wagon shook.

The teenager lost balance landed on his butt down on the floor and crawled backwards toward the exit, but the door wasn’t there anymore. Panic bubbled inside him again and he wanted to scream, but all he could get out was a little squeak. But then suddenly, it all stopped. The Madame stopped talking and the animals froze, like they were listening to a silent voice. The purple glow in Madame Luck’s eyes fainted and she smiled at him like it never happened ‘It’s your lucky day today’ she said with the same sweet and happy voice as before ‘seems like the Fortunes only was a pre-taste of a coming product, so they’re free’

The teenager stared at her, was she kidding?

‘Now, off with you!’ the lady said and waved. Hands of purple dust pushed him and send him flying out of the wagon, along with his money and Pikachu-wallet. He landed on his nose on the solid asphalt, scratching it really bad. The teenager turned around to throw an insult at the Madame, but there were no sign of her and the wagon, it was completely gone. He scowled and stared at the spot where the wagon had been standing, had it just been a hallucination? Had he gone mad? He put his hand against his jacket. He felt the fortune cookie inside his pocket. It hadn’t been a hallucination at last…

A loud honk dragged the teenager out from his thought. A rusty white car came at full speed towards him. As a reflex, the teenager rolled aside and got away with hairsbreadth. The car broke with a whining sound and stopped. A guy with messy brown hair, a red Turkish hat and round Harry Potter-glasses jumped out and ran towards him. ‘Oh, holy lord of the ring, are you alright?’ he said with a breaking voice, like he was in the middle of puberty, thought he looked much older than that. As he came closer, the teenager saw more details on the Harry Potter-guy; He had really bad acne and wore a blue bathrobe over a dirty shirt and jeans. He had narrowing eyes, like he had some Asian in his blood and he was extremely overweight. ‘You look terrible, did I hit you? I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you. It was like you just came flying from the empty air and I don’t have that very good reflexes’

The guy babbled with a surprising speed and the teenager found it hard to register everything of what he said. Their eyes met, and suddenly the guy went silent. His face got a shocked and surprised look at first, then he widened his small eyes and there was nothing but fear in them.

‘No! Don’t hurt me!’ the guy shrieked and stumbled backwards

The teenager looked surprised as Harry Potter started to cry out of fear, what had happened? ‘I’m not gonna hurt you…’ he tried to calm the guy down, but he only got more hysterical when he came closer. ‘Go away! Go away!’ he cried.

What in heavens is happening? The teenager thought desperately and turned around. Memories or not, this is beyond normal! He thought and tore his hair out of frustration.

The Harry Potter-guy’s crying calmed down to violent sobbing. ‘Man that was scary’ he said ‘Suddenly, I just saw darkness and…’

The teenager turned against him and raised an eyebrow ‘What?’

The guy stared at him for a few seconds before he started crying and screaming again.

‘Okay, okay. Seriously stop crying!’ the teenager tried to over voice the guy’s screaming. He didn’t like the way the guy looked at him, like he was the one who scared him.

‘Don’t look at me! Stop it, please! Stop it!’ the guy pleaded. ‘No more!’

‘I… I don’t do anything’ the teenage responded confused.

‘Cover your face, please!’ the guy pleaded

Am I really that ugly, the teenager thought. ‘Okay, fine!’ he covered his eyes with his hands. Why would that help?

Suddenly, the guy stopped crying, the teenager was about to look up, but the guys screamed:

‘No! Don’t look at me! Keep your face in your head just like that!’

The teenager didn’t understand why, but he did as he was told. He heard the guy get up on his feet, was he about to run away from him? He heard a car door open and slam shut and the guy coming back. ‘Here, put this on’

The teenager was handed a pair of sunglasses. It was a pair of pretty nice Ray-Ban’s Aviator with golden bows and glass with a green oily tone. He put them on and looked at the guy, who gave him a superstitious and nervous look before he nodded.

‘That’s better’ he said as he wiped his face with the sleeves of his bathrobe ‘Never take them off when I’m around, ok?’

‘What happened?’ the teenager asked

‘I think you happened, man’ the guy said ‘Come on, let’s talk in the car’ He pushed the teenager towards the car ‘By the way, I’m Chuck’

 

 


	2. A Real Hero?

‘So you don’t remember anything?’ Chuck said and raised an eyebrow. They’d just hit the road and the engine wailed as if it was about to give up any second. The teenager had told him about his little story; how he’d woken up without memories, met a crazy and glowing old lady and at last, how he’d flown out of the wagon and almost got overrun by Chuck.

Chuck sat silent for a while, trying to melt down the teenager’s story.

‘That sounds crazy, man’ he said and laughed nervously ‘What are you on?’

‘Hey, dude!’ The teenager snapped ‘I haven’t taken anything! It’s true!’

‘Yeah… sure, man’ Chuck said and bit his lip. They sat silent for a long time and the teenager decided to take a look around in the car. It smelled of pizza and old socks. It was full of piles of fast food-junk, pizza boxes along with dirty underwear. It wasn’t maybe the coziest place to be on, but it was far better that Madame Luck’s Fortune Teller-wagon.

‘Seriously, man! Where are you from? You can’t just like pop up in the middle of nowhere just like that…’ Chuck asked, but the teenager had turned his attention on something else. They’d reached the place where he had woken up on. It crawled with ambulances, policemen and fire trucks. They saw some ambulance-men carrying a black bag that contained something that looked like a man, from the train. A bunch of men circled something to the right. It was a big wreck of red painted metal. A tingling chill ran down the boy’s neck as he realized what it was. ‘I was in that car’ he said and stared at the wreck.

‘You, what?’ Chuck gave him a doubtful look

‘I don’t know’ the boy said ‘I just… got a feeling I was in that car when it collided’

He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he got a creepy feeling that he’d been sitting in that car. It was like a déjà vu, he didn’t remember it, but he was 100 percent sure it had happened.

‘That’s impossible!’ Chuck said and looked at the car-wreck ‘Never that you survived that!’

The boy sat silent and stared at the men around the wreck fishing out a lifeless and completely crushed body.

‘Well, it maybe could explain your amnesia, no one survives something like that without wounds’ Chuck said ‘Let’s go, I don’t know what to think about you, man, but you need to see a doctor!’

‘But there’s doctors right there…’ said the teenager and pointed through on the ambulances.

‘eehm, No, they aren’t… trustable’ Chuck sounded nervous, almost scared. The fourteen-years-old raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.

The car sped away and soon they had put the scene of the accident far behind them. They sat in silence for a long time before Chuck suddenly laughed and shook his head.

‘What?’ the teenage asked

‘No it’s just…’ Chuck bit his lip and searched for the right words ‘You’re weird man. And you scare me’

The teenager raised an eyebrow.

‘Don’t get mad, ok?’ Chuck said ‘Everything’s just weird. You show up on a road in the middle of nowhere, claims that you’ve survived a train-accident and then there are those scary eyes of yours’

‘What’s wrong with my eyes?’

‘I don’t know, man’ Chuck said ‘They’re scary. As soon I looked at them, all my worst memories and my biggest fears came to me’ he swallowed ‘It was weird. Man, It was like they did it. You must be…no… I think you’re a…’ He made a little laugh, like he didn’t believe his own thoughts.

‘I’m a what?’ the boy asked. What was Chuck babbling about?

‘I think you’re a…’ Chuck repeated and swallowed ‘a mutant’

The teenager sat silent in a few seconds and then he laughed.

‘No, really man! You’re special’ Chuck explained ‘And there may be people like you out there. I’m sure of it, there’s never only one special guy’

The teenager didn’t know what he would think about the things Chuck had said. He was a mutant, like in X-men? That sounded crazy. But Chuck had said some sense. He didn’t feel normal, even for a guy with amnesia. He may not remember anything from his past, but he got this feeling that he’d never felt normal, that he always was an outsider. The teenager turned his back towards Chuck and leaned his head against the car door. He was too tired to think, his brain felt like a big cloud of confusion. He gasped and closed his eyes, and soon he fell into sleep.

 

His dream didn’t make much more sense than the reality. He found himself standing alone in the dark, surrounded by purple fog. Barely hearable sounds came from somewhere in front of him. He walked towards it and it grew to whisperings and later a soft melody; wordless but beautiful melody. The teenager’s neck started to tingle, like it did when he recognized the car. He knew this song, but he just couldn’t remember from where. His memories felt close, just enough far away that he couldn’t reach them.

Suddenly, something appeared on the dark ground. It was a fortune cookie, like the one he gotten from Madame Luck. He picked it up and broke it open. Inside was a little green keychain in the shape of a four-leafed clover saying “you’re LUCKY” with big golden letters. He found it a little difficult to read it, but in the end he managed to get out the words. _So I can read after all?_ He thought and looked at the keychain. ‘Many choose to seek luck’ a familiar voice spoke. The teenager looked up and suddenly Madame Luck stood there only a few decimeters from him, with her purple clothes and white eyes. ‘You…’ he growled, but the Madame cut him off; ‘But the ones who seek it will never get it’. She spoke with a robotic voice, like she was chanting. She lifter her hand and pointed at the keychain in the teenager’s hand.

‘Take it with you on your journey’ she chanted ‘Don’t lose it, it may come in handy’

‘What do you mean?’ the boy asked, but Madame Luck had already begun to faint away. ‘Hey, wait!’

He saw her mouth something and then she was gone.

The teenage snorted and looked at the keychain. “You’re LUCKY”, yeah, sure he was. Just got hit by a train and lost his memory and all, so lucky.

He looked into the dark, and a pair of yellow eyes stared back at him. The eyes glowed at seemed to come closer. He heard a whistle and the thundering sound of a train, a train that was coming straight at him at full speed.

 

He woke up with a scream, cold sweating and with a racing pulse. A train was just whistling near them.

‘Morning, sleepyhead’ Chuck said and smiled ‘Dreamt sweet?’

‘Not really’ the teenager mumbled and looked out the window.

They stood in a tailback on a bridge; beneath them were lots of railways, overhead lines, more bridges and streetlights. They must been in the middle of a really big city. The sky was dark blue, but the many streetlights and cars’ lamps made it so bright that it couldn’t have been in the middle of the day.  

‘Where are we?’ he asked

‘Boston, took a little bit longer that it should have’ Chuck answered ‘Got some problems with the car and we were stuck for a while’ he scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. ‘And then I was hungry, so I stopped to eat. You were sleeping, so I bought a burger from a drive through’ He handed the teenager a paper bag with a burger inside and a cup of coke ‘it’s a little bit cold, but I have a microwave at home, just fifteen minutes from here if you want to warm it up’

‘Where’s that train heading?’ The boy tried to follow the railway with his eyes, but it was too many of them and they disappeared behind buildings.

‘Eeh, I don’t know’ Chuck said confused ‘Why you wonder?’

In his dreams, Madame Luck had said something that he then didn’t hear what it was, but at that moment it came up to him. The words echoed inside his head: _“Follow the trains”_. Did she mean that train? What should he find there? Probably nothing, it had just been a dream. But what if it was a part of the weird stuff that was happening with him? The curiosity was overwhelming the teenager, he just had to go and at least check if he could find something there.

‘Thanks for everything’ he said to Chuck and jumped out of the car, bringing the food with him. Chuck protested, but the teenager closed the door and walked away, leaving him behind in his dirty little Volvo.

It was harder to get down to the railway tracks than he thought. The bridge-roads went crisscross and didn’t at all go where he had hoped or thought they would. When he finally reached ground-level, his hands couldn’t stop shaking and he breathed heavily, almost like he was having a panic attack. He thought it was because of hunger and he sat down on a cement block to eat his burger. The teenager had been hungry, indeed, but it didn’t stop his hands from shaking. As a reflex, he checked his pockets and brought out a package of Camel blue and a lighter. His whole body relaxed when he lit the cigarette and filled his lungs with smoke. That was the one missing thing, smoking. He didn’t know how often he used to do it, but he hadn’t done it for at least a day, so no wonder he’d almost went nuts.

The teenager smiled, he was full and satisfied. His brain felt relieved and he could finally think clearly. He tossed the fast food-junk on the ground and looked at the railways. It had been really dark now, it was probably night time. That made it easier for him to go unnoticed; he felt like he’d done that before, but at the same time it freaked him out. He noticed that he didn’t see well in the dark, with or without the sunglasses. And he thought about his day, waking up on a train track and the dream where he got overrun by a train. He just wasn’t that tempted to walk these tracks, but he knew he had to. He maybe could find a clue of who he was or what happened to him.

The train tracks were lined with fence and barbed wire, but how hard could it be to climb it? He rubbed his hands and made an attempt. It was hard. He fought the wire for hours before he finally fell down at the other side, full of scratch-wounds.  He got up on his feet and started to follow the tracks. He didn't need to know which one the train had been driving on, because they all seemed to go the same way.

He hadn’t walked for long before he heard voices. He could see figures of three guys fighting, one big and beefy guy and two small boys around the age of ten. He stopped and watched. The bigger guy was holding one of the boys by his shirt, lifting him a few centimeters above the ground. The other one jumped around and between his legs and tried to save his friend, no, probably brother, by kicking the big guy. They looked almost identical, with red curly hair, round faces full of freckles and both had gray-brown fuzzy pants and no shirt. The teenager found it hard to decide if the big and beefy guy were a man or woman, until he saw the bouncy balloon-like boobs under the guy’s shirt. The woman was twice as big as the teenager, and seemed to like to train due to her quantity and quality of muscles. She had a broad chin and strong jawlines and piercing allover her face. She wore leather jacket and slim leathery pants full of nits and chains. Her pearl-black hair fell down as curtains around her face and she wore dark and gothic makeup.

So, Miss Goth kicked the bouncing boy and pressed him towards the hard ground with her foot. The boys screamed and she laughed. Anger started to boil up inside the teenager. That was low, really low. He clenched his fist. He couldn't just stand there and watch while a big and beefy guy beat up ten-years-olds, still it was a really big and beefy guy and the fourteen-years-old knew he wouldn’t stand a chance. He argued with himself, he was tired, weary and weak, walking straight up to a big bully and hit she in the face wouldn’t be the wisest thing to do. He just wanted to stay in the shadows and walk past them; he wouldn't be that good help anyway and he just wanted to get his memories back, not dying for some kids. The teenager slowly backed away, but suddenly, one of the boys saw him.

‘Help us, please!’ he pleaded

Miss Goth turned around and looked straight at him. Goddamn it! The teenager thought and swallowed.

‘Well well, what have we here?’ she said and twitched her head. She had yellow, creepy eyes that stared hungrily at him. The teenager wanted to run away from there, but her eyes nailed him at place, he couldn’t manage to move a millimeter ‘Another naughty boy being out past curfew?’

She loosened her grips around the two boys and walked over to the teenager. He could feel the smell of rotten flesh mixed with caramelized apples from her; he didn't know which smell was the creepiest one. Miss Goth sniffed the air like an animal and a big grin exposed pointy, dangerous fangs, like a vampire’s.

‘Oh, my! You’re a hero, aren’t you?’ she said with a hissing, but eager voice ‘Here to save your little goat slaves?’

The teenager had no idea of what she was talking about and he was too busy looking at her hungry eyes to even try to figure it out. Miss Goth licked her lips and looked at him like she was going to eat him alive and slowly.

‘Um… Yeah…’ the teenager said, not really away what it was she asked.

‘Yes, he’s going to save us!’ The boys cried happily. The teenager had completely forgotten about them. He blinked and looked at their way; Miss Goth took her chance and slung herself at the teenager. He had no time to react, and soon, he landed on the hard ground with Miss Goth sitting on his chest. She hissed satisfied and licked her lips.

‘You demigods has the best blood’ she said and smiled cheerfully ‘Not as dry as these goats over there’

Miss Goth looked at the place where she had left the boys, but they were gone. They’d probably run away from there, leaving the teenager there to his fate. Well, you’re welcome, he thought and sighed. He was completely stuck. Miss Goth’s weight pressed him hard against the concrete and made it painful for him to breath. She turned her attention to him again, giving her a wide grin. She leaned forward and gripped his sunglasses.

‘I like to watch the fear in the eyes of my meals’ she whispered and grinned.

She removed the sunglasses and their eyes met. Miss Goth froze. The teenager smiled widely as he saw the fear grow bigger in her eyes.

‘Merry Christmas’ he said, and as on command, two red-haired boys jumped on her; kicking her and head-butting her. She flew up in the air, waving with her claw-armed hands. The teenager rose but before he could join the wight one of the boys kicked her legs and she fell to the ground and hit her head on a railway track. She stopped moving and hissing, she had probably passed out. The teenager picked up his sunglasses. Fortunately, they seemed unharmed and he put them on after he wiped them off with his shirt.

‘HAHA! That was AWESOME’ the boys screamed and jumped up and down. They turned towards the teenager and looked at him with awe.

‘You was amazing!’ one of them said

‘And so cool!’ the other said and grabbed the teenager’s jacket ‘Just like, “Merry Christmas” and then you just just bam and slap’

The boy boxed in the air and laughed. The teenager scratched his head and looked confused at them. He had no idea what those “bam” and “slap” meant, he hadn’t even joined he fight. It was the boys that had done the real job. They had attacked her while he himself lay crushed against the ground, unable to move. And they had made her fall over so she hit her head. The teenager tried to say something, but the boys talked so much and didn’t hear him.

Then they heard a groan behind them and they all froze. Miss Goth had started to move again. All three of them, the teenager and the boys, started to scream and ran away as fast as they could. They could hear Miss Goth hissing far behind them, but no one dared to look back.

‘Come! Come this way!’ the boys waved at the teenager to follow them. The boys were really fast and the teenager found it hard to keep up to them. They ran on the railway tracks and somewhere ahead of them, a train’s whistle echoed in the dark night.

‘Awesome timing!’ one of the boys said and clapped his hands

They reached the train that just was about to start rolling. The boys jumped up and hung on the side of a goods van while trying to unlock the padlock on the slid door. After many tries, the lock broke open after getting beaten by violent kicking. They jumped aboard the train and turned against the fourteen-years-old. They waved at him and shouted ‘Come on!’ and ‘You can do it!’. The train had gained a pretty high speed and the teenager had to force himself to the breaking point. The last decimeters, he jumped and grabbed the edge of the train wagon. The boys grabbed him and helped him inside.

‘Woah, that was close man!’ one of the boys said and smiled widely at him, but the teenager collapsed on a sack that was filled with something slightly poofy. The teenager groaned, he was completely drained of energy. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his breathing down.

‘Dude, you’re awesome!’ the other boy said ‘Thanks you’re a real hero’

The two boys crawled up on each side of him and cuddled their faces in his leatherjacket. The teenager felt a weird pain in his heart and stomach. He hadn’t done anything for them; he had been thinking to abandon them, leaving them to their fates with Miss Goth. But he didn’t say anything, they were safe now and he was too tired to say anything. The teenager took a deep breath and soon, he fell asleep.

 


	3. The Nameless Trio

The teenager rolled over to his left side. He gasped and sighed sleepily. He had been dreaming a really weird dream. A dream where he’d woken up after getting hit by a train, and he met a crazy Madame, and a fat nerd called Chuck, telling him he was a mutant and a vampire that tried to eat him alive. Even if the dream had been really weird, it felt so real that the teenager at first it was true. But that was silly, nothing like that happen in this world.

The teenager suddenly realized that his whole body wobbled, like he was lying in a rocking cradle. Then he heard wind’s howling and a chugging sound, beating in an even rhythm.  The teenager scowled. Where was he? He opened his eyes and saw that he was in a wooden room full of packages and sacks of letters. A slid door was half open and the teenager saw trees and landscaped swoosh by. He was on a train. The teenager sat up. He saw two ginger boys sitting on the floor and opened packages. They played with the stuff inside and eventually put it in their mouths. Were they eating it?

‘Oh, you are awake!’ one of them said and gave the teenager a big smile.

‘Yay!’ the other burst out and put his hand up in the air ‘Finally, our hero is awake!’

Both crawled to the teenager and sat on either side of him. The teenager looked at them, confused. They looked exactly like the two boys in his dream. Or had it really been a dream?

‘W-who are you guys?’ the teenager said, still confused

‘Uuhm…’ the boys looked at each other ‘You saved us last night’ one of them said

‘Don’t you remember?’ the other said

‘Yes, of course!’ the teenager answered ‘I mean… what are your names and where do you come from and why was that woman messing with you?’

‘Ooh’ they said, and then they went silent, while looking at each other again. Finally, one of them spoke: ‘Her name is Mormo, she wanted to eat us’

‘Moron?’ the teenager raised an eyebrow

‘No, you moron!’ the other said and chuckled ‘Mormo, she’s a monster’

‘She can only feed on kids by biting them, like a vampire!’ the first one said and made two fangs with his fingers and hissed ‘I know that, ‘cause I’m smart!’

‘Yeah, right!’ the other one pursed his lips and crossed his arms ‘She _told_ us that’

‘Shut up!’ the first one snapped and pushed the other so he fell over

‘Hey!’ the other one yelled and flew at him. They started wrestling and head-butted each other. The teenager looked at them, confused. His brain was still on sleep-mode and didn’t work at all.

‘Hey, HEY!’ the teenager shout down the boys, who stopped and looked at him ‘Stop fighting, it doesn’t matter’

The boys let each other go and crossed their arms while glaring at the other one. The teenager sighed and massaged his temples.

‘Geez, all this messed up shit makes me crazy!’ he whined ‘Why me?’

‘Who are you, then?’ a boy asked ‘And what have happen to you, you look like a pile of dirt!’

The teenager glared at him _, a pile of dirt?_ He snorted; they didn’t have anything to do with it, why would he tell them?He shook his head and pulled his hand through his hair.

‘Well, I think I got hit by a train and lost my memory’ he answered shortly. The boys looked with big eyes at him. ‘Reeeeeaaally?!’ they said and leaned forward. ‘Tell us everything, please!’

The teenager hesitated, the boys gave him the sad puppy-face and he couldn’t resist laughing. They were like little kids that asked for a good story from grandpa. Not that the teenager liked to look like a grandpa, but it was nice to finally meet some that really seemed to believe him. Not a crazy nerd that couldn’t believe anyone else but his own theories like Chuck. Yeah, he’d been really nice to the teenager, he was really grateful for his help, but he felt another connection to these boys, like they also were a part of the same craziness the teenager was in.

‘Okay, okay’ he said and held up his hands ‘I’ll tell you then’

He told them his story from the very beginning; where he’d woken up on the railway track in the middle of nowhere. The boys were good listeners and “Ooh”-ed and “Aah”-ed every once in a while. They got scared when he described Madame Luck’s wagon and laughed at Chuck’s mutant-theory, even when they didn’t seem to know what X-men was.

The teenager round off the story with the last battle with Mormo the Moron, he only changed some details so it sounded more… heroic. He just couldn’t dare tell them he was about to leave them.

‘So I thought:’ the teenager said and held up a finger in the air ‘ _“Man, that girl is hurting smaller ones, I must do something!”_ So I make sure she turns her attention to me and attack me, so she thinks I’m an easy victim, then I say “Merry Christmas” and you guys knock her over, just like I planned!’

The boys hoorayed and clapped their hands.

‘That really was awesome’ one of them said ‘I think that was the best part!’

‘I like the Madame Luck-part. She seemed so scary’ the other one said and shuddered ‘May I see the keychain?’

‘Uh, sure’ the teenager said and brought out the keychain from his pocket. It was shining with green color and said ‘you’re LUCKY’ with big golden letters. The boys ah-ed and came closer.

‘What does it say?’ one asked

‘You’re lucky’ the teenager answered. He saw at the boys; he’d actually never looked closely at them. Their faces were full of freckles and they had forest-green eyes. They didn’t wear any shirt and had scratches in their surprisingly pale skin. Something that didn’t want to make sense in the teenager’s hade was their pants. They looked like they were bade of animal skin, and the legs inside seemed misshaped. And where were their feet? They had had stomps in the end of their legs, like hoofs, but that couldn’t be right! No one could get such and abnormality, right?

‘What’s up with your feet?’ the teenager asked. The boys gave him a confused look. The teenager took off one of his dirty and ripped converses. The boys put their own feet next to the teenager’s and compared the difference. Their eyes widened, like they never noticed that their feet were different.

‘Uuhm...’ The boys were speechless

‘Serieously, that can’t be real!’ The teenagers gripped on of the boy’s legs too look closer. It really was fur from and animal and it was stuck on his leg, had he glued it? No, there was no sign for any sort of opening and the hoof-feet also seemed real.

‘W-what the hell?’ the teenager stuttered ‘What are you?’

The boys gave him a sad look. This was probably not the first time someone had freaked out because of their legs, but the teenager couldn’t resist finding it scary.

‘Who are you guys?’ he asked and swallowed ‘Like, what are your names’

The boys looked at each other, waiting for the other one to tell him.

‘We…’ one of them started ‘We don’t know’

‘Don’t you guys have any parents or anything like that?’

The boys shrugged and the other one added: ‘We’ve lived alone as long as we remember’

 ‘Oh…’ the teenager felt speechless. So they didn’t have any idea of who they were, either?

‘Do you have any name, then?’ the boys shook their heads and looked down at the floor. The teenager could feel their sadness. He’d walked around in a day without knowing who he was and almost gone crazy; he couldn’t imagine how hard it would be going around his whole life without knowing.

‘So, you guys need names, then’ the teenager burst out and looked around in the goods van. He scratched the side of his head, accidently knocking off his sunglasses. He put them on before any of the boys could look him in the eyes. Then it came to him!

‘What about Ray and Ban?’ he said

The boys looked at him, almost shocked. Then they smiled widely.

‘That sounds awesome!’ one of them said

‘I want to be Ray!’ the other one said

‘Sure, Ray and Ban’ the teenager said and poked at them while saying their name. The boys started laughing and attacked the teenager with hugs and kisses.

‘Aah, please! Stop it!’ the teenager yelled, but soon he also started laughing. It felt good in his heart too see how happy they got. _That must fill up that I almost abandoned them,_ he thought and smiled widely.

‘But you didn’t have name, right?’ the one now called Ban, suddenly said.

‘Yeah, we need to give you a name too!’ Ray said and flew up on his stump-feet.

‘Haha, what?’

The two boys put their heads together, literally, and started rabbling up what they called names.

‘Cool-dude!’

‘Awesome-man’

‘Dirt Pile!’

The teenager laughed nervously, he’d rather be nameless than have any of those names.

‘Hey, guys, it’s ok’ he said and tried to get their attention ‘I don’t need any name…’

‘Of course you need!’ Ray said ‘We must call you something’

‘But those names are… Horrible’ the teenager was scared to hurt them, but they just looked confused.

‘Why?’ Ban said ‘I think they seemed pretty good, except Dirt Pile’

‘Hey, that was a good name!’

‘These aren’t really names’ the teenager explained ‘It’s just… made up words’

The boys scratched their chins and thought for a long while.

‘How did you come up with our names?’ Ban asked

‘Oh, from these glasses’ the teenager said and touched his Ray-Ban’s ‘The brand are called Ray-Ban’s so…’

‘So then we also can pick a name from something’ Ban said cheerfully and smiled

‘Yeah, exactly what I thought!’ Ray said and smiled, but the smile faded after only a few seconds ‘From where should we pick a name?’

‘There must be anything cool here’ Ban smiled and looked at all the packages in the goods van.

‘Exactly what I thought!’ Ray called.

Ban glared at Ray before he turned to the pile of packages. He sat down at started opening them, one by one. ‘Come on, help me searching!’

 

They sat for a long time and opened letters and packages. The boys turned to the teenager way to often and asked about the stuff they found. What it was called and if he could read what they said. They didn’t get much out of the things; it was pretty much just clothes, potteries and electronic stuff that the teenager had no idea of what it was.

Then, Ray picked up a little plushy from a small box and laughed. The teenager and Ban went over to him, curious over what he’d found.

‘What’s this stupid thing?’ Ray laughed and held up the plushy.

It looked like a cartoon character with orange hair, glasses, purple gloves and a white laboratory coat. The teenager recognized the character, but couldn’t put his finger on who he was.

Ban laughed ‘He looks so weird!’ he said and pointed at it and laughed so hard he started crying ‘So big head and little body and what’s wrong with his arms?’

Ray and Ban look and each other and laughed. They’d probably never watched cartoons before.

The teenager looked in the box where Ray had found the plush. He found a little note in the bottom hand-written with squiggly letters which made it hard for him to read.

‘To my lit-tle…De-Dexter’s la-lab lou- no, loving Max! Love, Gr and ma’ he read aloud. That’s right, Dexter’s lab sounded familiar. The teenager looked and the plush.

‘So, what is it?’ Ray and Ban asked while wiping their eyes from tears.

‘It’s a guy from a cartoon’ the teenager answered

‘Cartoon?’ Ray and Ban raised an eyebrow.

‘Like, TV, screens you can watch different things on. For kids’ the teenager tried to explain, but Ray and Ban didn’t seem to understand. ‘Anyway, he’s called Dexter. I think I used to watch it when I was little, he seems familiar.’

That’s right; he had surely watched it before. When he saw the plush, he just wanted to smile. It felt nostalgic, except that he actually didn’t _remember_ watching it.

‘Hmm, Dexter’ Ray said ‘Sounds cool!’

‘Yeah, I like it!’ Ban agreed. They looked at each other and nodded.

‘Then we’re done!’ Ray said

‘Your name will be Dexter!’ Ban said

The teenager looked at them. Dexter. It felt… alright. It didn’t feel like him, but it was acceptable. Much better than Dirt Pile, anyway.

‘Okay, then’ the teenager said and smiled ‘From now on, we’ll be Dexter, Ray and Ban’

Ray and Ban hoorayed and, once again, attacked him with hugs and kisses. All of them laughed and smiled, none of them were alone nor nameless.

A train’s whistle interrupted in their celebrations. They felt how the train slowly started to slow down.

‘Come on!’ Ban said and walked to the slid door. ‘Let’s jump off before it stops completely’

‘Uuhm,’ Ray said and looked at the plush ‘May I take this one with me?’

‘Haha, sure!’ Dexter answered and grinned ‘Let’s go!’

The three of them waited until they found a good spot to land on; a small grass spot. Ray and Ban made it out pretty well; they jumped and rolled to soften down the fall. Dexter wasn’t a good jumper as them, and also, he misjudges and almost completely missed the grass spot. He groaned as Ray and Ban ran up to him

‘Are you okay?!’ they asked worriedly and helped him up.

‘Uuh, yeah’ he groaned ‘I just… slipped…’

He sat up to throw up next to him.

‘You were lucky, then!’ Ban gave him a faint smile ‘You could have died!’

‘Yeah, so lucky’ Dexter muttered.

 


	4. Fun Time in New York

The train had taken them all the way to New York City. Dexter, Ray and Ban, the three newly named boys, walked around on Times Square and looked with big eyes at all the glowing signs, the screens, stores and restaurants. Dexter, the fourteen-years-old amnesiac and temporary homeless boy, felt like he really was on the wrong place between all the mighty buildings around him. A big, glowing clock on the outside of a building told him it was five in the morning, and the streets were pretty empty. Only a few 24/7 fast-food restaurants was open. Dexter, Ray and Ban tried to order from one of them, but they got out thrown. He understood them; he probably didn’t look that attractive with all the dirt in his face and his ripped clothes, and with Ray and Ban and their animal-legs at his side, it was probably too much for them.

‘Why didn’t they want us there?’ Ban asked and made a sour face

‘Yeah, mean people!’ Ray crossed his arms ‘I’m hungry!’

‘Naah, we’re too dirty and smelly’ Dexter said and looked around ‘They can probably feel our stenches all the way to the top of the Empire State building, no one wants someone like that in their restaurant’

The boys sniffed the air around Dexter. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked

‘You smell good!’ Ban protested and gave up a sigh, like he was in heaven and smelled all sorts of newly baked cupcakes.

‘What, are you kidding me?’ Dexter took one step away from Ban.

‘No really, you smell…trustable’ Ben tried to explain himself

‘What?’

‘You really are! It’s hard to explain, but you really smell special!’ Ray said and nodded ‘Not like Mormo, she stenched of evil, but you smells good!’

Dexter raised an eyebrow and looked at them with disbelief. Some things they said didn’t really make any sense. He sniffed under his armpits, but couldn’t feel any nice smell at all; he really needed a bath.

‘Anyway’ Dexter coughed ‘Let’s find somewhere we can clean ourselves!’

‘Alright!’

They walked for maybe half an hour before Ray spotted a pool on someone’s backyard. The house didn’t look like much, a little rookery that has seen better days. It was brown and junk was scattered over the lawn, with as tall that it reached up to Dexter’s knees. Instead of fixing the house, the owner had come by a really nice pool. It was a big, seven seated Jacuzzi with an inbuilt fountain, LED-lamps with any color you wanted and foot massage. The house seemed empty and there was no car on the parking lot, so Dexter took the chance.

It was hard to turn it on, but after a while, Dexter found the right button and the pool light up in a blue-green dreamy light and started bubbling.

Dexter took of his clothes, except for his boxers, and sank down in the hot tube. He felt how the dirt on his body let go and gave the water a dim, brown color.

Dexter reached for his jacket, bringing a cigarette and his lighter out. He lit his cigarette and filled his lungs with smoke. Dexter sighed out of relief and closed his eyes. For a moment, Dexter felt completely free of problems. He was just sitting in a pool with his friends, having a great time.

Ray and Ban splashed and laughed. They’ve probably not had that fun in a long time either. They had also been really dirty, because their fuzzy legs turned white as milk after being in the water.

‘Man, this is awesome!’ Ray said and turned towards Dexter ‘We can live like this the rest of our lives!’

Dexter laughed and smiled at him. ‘Yeah, it’s great, isn’t it?’

‘Greater than heaven!’ Ban sighed and smiled as he leaned back and closed his eyes.

All three of them went silent and almost dozed off. The air smelled of cigarette, chlorine and wet animal, Dexter hadn’t yet melted the fact that Ray and Ban had animal-legs.

But their great time got interrupted by a furious scream. A man came running towards them from the front yard. He had a bushy brown beard and almost no hair, a big beer belly and dirty clothes.

‘Hey, get out of my pool, you brats!’ he yelled and shook his fist and threw a can of diet coke at them.

Dexter, Ray and Ban flew out of the pool. Dexter grabbed his clothes and together they started running. The man screamed after them, but he didn’t seem to follow them. The trio ran until they barely could stand on their feet and then they collapsed on the ground and laughed. They laughed for a long time before any of them managed to say anything.

‘That was fun!’ Ban said and wiped his eyes from tears.

‘Yeah!’ Ray agreed and started laughing again.

‘And really nice, that pool was awesome!’ Dexter said and smiled widely.

‘Indeed!’ the other two agreed.

Dexter got up on his feet and put on his clothes. It didn’t feel that comfortable to put on his old and dirty clothes again, but what choice did he have?

‘Who about we get some new clothes?’ he said and but his both hand together

‘But we don’t need any clothes’ Ray said

‘Oh, yes, you do!’ Dexter assured ‘You guys may be less eyecatching if you’re wearing clothes’

‘Hmm, maybe’ Ban mumbled and made a thinking face

‘But clothes are so uncomfortable!’ Ray complained

‘Come on, you have to wear something’ Dexter sighed ‘And I can’t tell the difference between you’

‘Fine!’ Ban said ‘But no pants!’

‘Yeah, no pants!’ Ray agreed ‘To hot and to itchy!’

Dexter sighed. Their animal-legs was what scared people the most, but if they wore at least a shirt, folks maybe would take them as fuzzy pants.

‘Okay, sure!’ Dexter said and nodded ‘Let’s go!’

 

It didn’t go as Dexter had planned. After making wrong turns, getting lost a few times and walking in circles, the three friends finally got back to the city area. This time, it was people everywhere, going from store to store with big plastic bags and smiles on their faces. Dexter felt their superstitious glances on him and Ray and Ban. Folk walked around them in big circles, not wanting to get near them.

 _Never that anyone will let us in their store_ , Dexter though bitterly. He needed something that wasn’t as popular and with less folks working. They kept on walking, and after another few minutes, Dexter found what he was looking for. He saw a sign on a door saying: “Secondhand”. The door and the sign were so discreet that people just walked passed it, without noticing it. Dexter wondered if they’d ever had a customer as he opened the door. A stairwell led down to a basement full of clothes, porcelain and all kinds of stuff that someone else once owned. Dexter saw no people, not even someone behind the disk.

‘Perceft!’ he said and turned towards Ray and Ban

‘Just clothes, no junk, be quick’ he said. The boys nodded and trotted away inside the store.

After a few minutes, the boys came back, both wearing outfits so ridiculous that Dexter couldn’t decide which one was the worst one. He burst out in laughter and it took several minutes before he could say anything.

‘God, you two look ridiculous!’ he said and took a deep and shaky breath, trying not to start laughing again.

The boys looked at each other and then gave him a slightly sad look.

‘Why?’ Ban said and looked at his clothes. He was wearing a way too big sweater with check-pattern of the worst color-combination: forest-green, really light blue and shocking pink. He also had a red handkerchief around his neck and a gray-orange belly warmer.

Ray had chosen a pink T-shirt with Hello Kitty-motive and a way too small jeans jacket with flowers embroider on the back and a New York Yankees-cap.

Dexter wrinkled his nose when he saw the cap. ‘Screw the Yankees’ he muttered.

He himself had changed almost everything but his leather jacket. He’d found a pair of normal blue jeans that was just a little too short for him and exposed a pair of bright red socks.  His dirty T-shirt had been replaced with a new white one and for once he felt clean and comfortable. It was just a pair of new shoes that was missing, his old ones was all weary and the soles was about to let go from the rest of the shoes. The shoes he’d found in the store was either too small or just a big no-no, so he tried to fix the old ones with duct tape he’d found behind the disk.

‘So, are we done here?’ he asked his two friends, but before they could answer, a flushing sound from a toiled and someone hymning on a cheerful melody got their attention. A woman with messy hair, knitted clothes and big round glasses came out from a room right behind the disk. She looked surprised at Dexter, Ray and Ban, maybe because of she actually had customers or the fact that they were wearing clothes from her store.

‘uuh, hi…’ she started

‘Bye!’ Dexter ended and flew up the stairs with Ray and Ban right behind him. They hit the street and ran as fast as they could. Dexter wanted to be as far from there before the woman called the police. They ran as far as they could, which wasn’t that far, before collapsing in the shades of some trees in a park. Dexter’s breathing whistled and it took a long time before it went back to normal.

‘Stupid smoking’ he muttered. He knew smoking was bad, it stood written on the cigarette-packages. Why had he started? Did he want to die? Dexter shook his head, no idea wasting energy on something he couldn’t remember. Dexter closed his eyes and sighed. No one said anything in a long while; they lay in the grass and listened to the bird’s song and the buzz from speaking and laughing people.

A cold wind rustled in the treetops and made Dexter shudder. He opened his eyes. The sun had disappeared behind big black clouds.

‘Oh, bad weather is coming’ Dexter said with worry in his voice. He didn’t want to get wet and cold now when he finally got new clothes. Ray and Ban sat up and looked at the cloudy sky.

‘Yeah, that looks bad’ Ray said

‘Let’s hurry!’ Ban said unhappily ‘I don’t like rain!’

They all agreed on trying to find some sort of shelter and went off. They walked with high tempo without really know what sort of shelter they was looking for. They’d just left the skyscrapers behind and entered an industrial area when the sky opened up and the rain poured down on them. They started running and ran past factories and small houses that people lived in only because they weren’t able to afford a better one.

Down the street, Dexter saw a small warehouse that looked like it hadn’t been used for many years. The red brick walls were overgrown by climbing plants and Dexter couldn’t see any window that wasn’t broken. But it had a roof and that was enough for him.

‘That looks okay!’ he yelled to Ray and Ban, trying to shout down the splattering of the rain. ‘Let’s stop there until it stops raining’

The heavy doors creaked when Dexter pushed them open. Ray and Ban froze and looked with terror at the warehouse.

‘What’s the matter?’ Dexter asked and looked around inside. There was a big mountain of junk in the middle of the floor, which surprised Dexter. He’d imagined it being more… empty. There was a big hole in the roof right above him, but above the big junk-mountain, it was whole and dry with no leakages. 

‘Come on, it’s dry in here!’ he called to Ray and Ban, that still stood outside in the rain. He walked towards the mountain. It was made of bits of metal, wood, cartons, leaves and hay, an interesting combination. Dexter heard a low sound that he at first thought was thunder, but then he realized it came from inside the junk-mountain. He took a closer look at it, was it _moving_? He stood and watched for a long time. It really _was_ moving! Synchronized with the sounds, the mountains expanded and shrunk together, like it was breathing. The hair on Dexter’s neck rose and a chill crawled down his ridge. He looked over his shoulder at Ray and Ban. That looked terrified and their eyes begged him to come back out from there. Dexter didn’t protest, he didn’t want to be there either. He turned around and sneaked towards the doors again, as quiet as he could. Why did every sound Dexter make felt like it was three times so loud all of a sudden? The ground seemed to shake like an earthquake every time he took a step, his breathing howled like a stormy wind and his heartbeats echoed like someone was striking a big gong cymbal.

Suddenly, the ground under one of his feet rolled away, making him fall headlong on the concrete floor. A metal can rolled away, making a scrambling and alarming high noise. The snoring stopped, so did the moving of the mountain of junk. Dexter sat on the ground, too afraid to move or even breathe. After something that felt like an eternity, the snoring continued and the scrap-mountain moved again, as if nothing had happened. Dexter took a breather out of relief and slowly and really carefully rose up on his feet again. With long and silent steps, he went out of the warehouse as fast as he could.

‘Man, that’s whatI call luck!’ Dexter said to Ray and Ban.

They that gave him a nervous smile, but it faded as they looked at something above Dexter’s head.

Suddenly, something started glowing above him, was that flames? Dexter slowly turned around, praying that his superstitions were false. From the big hole in the roof of the warehouse, a black head with red glowing eyes was sticking up and staring at him.

‘I’m so done!’

 


	5. Playing Tags with a Monster

The rain poured down over Dexter, making him all wet and cold. His hair laid flat on his head and followed the shape of his skull. His expired breath turned to fog and his sunglasses mist over, making it hard for him to see through them. But those glowing red eyes burned through the glass and the mist. They stared at him full of anger and hatred, and Dexter knew that he was dead already, he knew that. Those eyes told him that he wouldn’t get away alive.

The owner of the eyed poked his head up a big hole of a warehouse he’d been sleeping in before Dexter woke him up. The head was the shape of a bull, a really huge bull, which roared so high that Dexter’s ears popped and he felt something warm start dropping out of them. Ray and Ban, who had been standing right behind him, shrieked and ran away, but Dexter stood frozen and stared with fear at the big black bull that just slammed through the wall of the warehouse and spat out a huge wave of fire up the air. The bull had shiny hoofs, like they were made of some sort of metal. It was as big as the now ruined warehouse and had horns with the width of three meters. Dexter stared at the animal, paralyzed by its glowing death stare. The bull lowered his head and launched towards Dexter, who should have been ripped to pieces by the horns, if it wasn’t for his two friends. When they’d realized that Dexter wasn’t with them while running, they had hurried back and found him staring at the big monster. They kicked his legs, so he fall face-down on the ground, avoiding the bull’s horns. Ray slapped Dexter rughly in the face, making his sunglasses bounce away. Ban tried to get the bull’s attention from Dexter and Ray by throwing rocks at it and making annoying noises. The stones didn’t seem to bother the animal, but the bleating and shrieking noises hade him snort out of irritation. The bull tried to kick and stomp Ban into a pancake, but Ban rolled aside and avoided the kicks without any problem.

‘Come on!’ Ray said to Dexter and helped him up on his feet ‘Run, we can take care of him!’

Dexter wanted to protest and say that he couldn’t just leave them, but what could he do? It was an enormous, fire breathing bull, he wouldn’t stand a chance. He turned around and sprinted away, hoping the bull wouldn’t follow. But unfortunately, Dexter seemed more interesting than the two furry-legged boys. As soon the bull noticed Dexter running away, it started off after him roaring and spitting fire. Ray and Ban tried their best to get the bull’s attention, but it only got him more annoyed and angry than before.

Dexter zigzagged between factories and warehouses, trying to shake the bull off him and hide, but it seemed impossible. The big black beef animal probably didn’t need to see him to know where he was, because it always found him. Dexter started to get tired, his legs felt heavy and his bronchus felt as thin as a straw pipe. The rain whipped him in the face, and the wind bit his cheek and fingers until they got all numb.

Then, Dexter heard a scream behind him. He stopped and turned around to see Ban falling to the asphaltic ground. Somehow, he and Ray had managed to climb up on the bull’s back and tried to stop it by kicking and boxing it. Ray screamed Ban’s name, and with a single shake, the bull also sent him falling to the ground.

‘NO!’ Dexter screamed. The wild livestock looked at him with hungry red eyes. ‘You…Bastard!’

Dexter clenched his fists and tried to blink away his tears. He felt his anger bubbling up inside him. Why him? He’d woken up without memories to a world full of madness. He’d met a crazy Madame, a vampire that tried to eat him and a fire-spitting bull that killed his new friends. Dexter stomped on the ground; he was tired of all that crap. Why couldn’t he just get his memories back? If there was a God up in the sky, why did he mess so much with him? What had he done wrong?

The bull snorted and scratched the ground with its metallic hoof and raced towards Dexter, who stood his ground and glared at the male-cow. He stared deep into the burning eyes, reflecting the animal’s anger. He thought about how much he hated it and imagined it hanging on a meat hook, getting sliced up into big and nice slices of meat. Dexter bared his teeth, he wanted to see the bull dead. He wanted to hit it with a hammer, again and again.

‘Screw you!’ he screamed as the bull came closer.

Then, suddenly, it stopped just a few meters away from him. It snorted and backed up a few steps, giving Dexter a nervous look. Dexter felt how all his energy got sucked out, like what an electronic does with a battery. He fell to his knees, breathed heavily and blinked several times. His head felt heavy and all he wanted was to lay down on the ground and sleep. His vision went blurry and he could hear the blood buzzing in his ears. Dexter blinked. He felt dizzy and tried to hold his head up straight, but it was hard. He saw how the bull shook his head and snorted. It glared angrily on him and scratched with his hoof on the ground. Dexter just couldn’t react, he just sat there and watched as the bull swung his horns against him, but right before the horns would hit Dexter, the bull seemed to explode and transformed to glittering dust.

Dexter scowled and looked distantly at the golden sand that now covered the asphalt. What was that? Confetti? He slowly lifted his head and looked around. He saw everything double, which gave him nausea and forced him to close his eyes.

He heard numb voices, like someone was talking on the other side of a thick wall. He felt how someone gripped his shoulders and hold him up in a sitting position while pouring something in his mouth.

Dexter’s nausea slowly faded and his vision became clear and normal. He heard a crackling sound and pain pulsed somewhere inside his ears. But the pain disappeared quickly and Dexter felt like normal again. He managed to sit up by himself and saw a guy kneeling next to him. _It must be the one who helped me_ , Dexter guessed and looked up at the guy. He looked several years older than Dexter and had pure black hair covering the right side of his face. His skin was pale and he wore a black hoodie over a red shirt. His face had a serious expression, almost angry. Dexter looked at his eyes. They had a deep purple color, like the stains of blueberry. The guy glared deep into Dexter’s eyes, filling him with guild and saying it all was his fault. Dexter bared his teeth and narrowed his eyes, why did the guy blame him? He had done nothing! After a short stare-contest the guy finally widened his eyes of fear and shock. He sat frozen and looked surprised at Dexter, then, all of a sudden, he lifted his hand and slapped Dexter in the face. Dexter blinked, what happened? He got so surprised by the guy’s sudden action that he couldn’t do anything than staring out in the empty air. He blinked again and forced himself to break out of the shock.

‘What the heck…’ he started and turned towards the guy, but the guy grabbed Dexter by his hair and pressed his face against the wet ground.

‘Don’t you try doing that again, brat!’ the guy growled with a raspy voice.

‘Hey! Let me go!’ Dexter yelled and waved with his arms, trying to hit the guy.

‘Yeah, keep on dreaming!’ they guy snorted and easily locked Dexter’s arms ‘Shut up and keep your eyes on the ground!’

Dexter tried to break free from the guy’s grip, but he held him to hard. Dexter was completely stuck. He sighed and forced himself to calm down, even if he really wanted to hit the guy.

‘Dude, I don’t know what happened, the bull just attacked and my friends…’  Dexter froze, Ray and Ban. Where were they? Were they still…alive?

‘Your friends?’ the guy asked.

Then another voice called. Dexter couldn’t see who it was, but he must been standing around the spot where Ray and Ban had fallen.

‘Hey, bud! There are two satyrs over here!’ it said.

‘Is the gingers your friends?’ the first guy asked Dexter.

‘Yes! Are they okay?’ Dexter answered and swallowed.

‘They will be’ the guy answered coldly ‘Sven is great at healing’

‘Sven?’

‘A real pain in the ass’ the guy muttered ‘You can have him too, if you want. You seem to like satyrs…’

Dexter was about to snap that the guy was a pain in the ass but got interrupted by two familiar voices shouting his name. He could hear the trotting sound of Ray and Ban’s hooves against the asphalt and the threatening words they threw at the guy who was holding him down.

‘Is that how you thank the one who just saved your friends ass?’ the guy called and let go of Dexter, who quickly rolled away from him. He tried to stand up, but the whole world started spinning around and Dexter fell down on his butt again, feeling the nausea coming back.

‘Dexter!’ Ray and Ban ran to him, checking if he was okay.

Dexter had to ensure them several times that he just was a little dizzy, before they finally calmed down. They looked at the guy, who gave them an annoyed look.

‘Where’s the bull?’ Ban asked and looked around

‘You’re not the bull, are you?’ Ray looked superstitious at the guy.

‘No, I’m not a bull’ the guy growled and rolled his eyes ‘I’m Faine, I _killed_ the bull, saving _your_ asses’

‘Reeally?!’ Ray and Ban said with one mouth and their doubting faces got replaces by amazement. ‘How?’

Faine rolled his eyes again and turned towards Dexter, but this time he made sure he didn’t meet Dexter’s gaze.

‘Hey, kid! Dexter, right?’ he asked coldly, but he didn’t wait for an answer. ‘How old are you’

‘Fourteen’ Dexter answered between gritted teeth.

‘No way a loser like you would survive that long’ Faine snorted. Dexter had no idea of what he meant by “survive that long”, but he didn’t like to be called “loser”.

‘Listen, you little-…’

‘Just shut up and answer my questions!’ Faine snapped ‘Are you aware of what your eyes can do?’

Dexter crossed his arms and looked at another way, why would he answer his stupid questions? Then Ban shoved his elbow on Dexter’s ribs, giving him a “Just do it”-look. Was Ban on stupid Faine’s side? ‘Fine!’ Dexter said and sighed ‘All I know is that everyone that looks into them freaks out’

He’d actually never thought about it that much. The first time it happened, he’d never realized it was him. He’d thought that Chuck was joking with him, or at least too crazy when he told him about his Mutant-idea. The second victim had been Mormo, and then he’d been too busy to not getting eating and after the bull-incident, he’d just haven’t had time to think.

‘For how long have it been like that?’

‘I don’t know…’ Dexter said and scratched his head.

‘You don’t know?’ Faine crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow, he really didn’t believe him. Dexter clenched his fist ‘Why you care anyway-…’

‘Dexter has amnesia!’ Ban cut him off

‘Yeah, he hit his head’ Ray filled in

Dexter looked at them. They acted nervous, like they didn’t want to upset Faine. Not the “please don’t kill us”-way, but in the “please excuse our friend, we think you’re awesome”-way.

‘Amnesia, then…’ Faine said and mumbled something. Dexter didn’t know if it was it was in another language or if it just was a funny accent, however, he couldn’t make out words of it.

Faine was about to say something, but got cut off by someone calling his name.

A guy came towards them and smiled widely. Dexter recognized his voice as the one that Faine had talked to earlier. He had a forest green hunting hat with ear flaps and a blue shirt with red and yellow details, like some sort of national dress. Blond hair stuck out under the hat, framing an oval-shaped face with slight sunburnt. The guy smiled at Dexter, exposing two big rabbit-teeth and a brace. He seemed like being in the same age as Dexter, but his smile told that he looked at Dexter like a cute little kid. The guy covered his eyes with his hand before their gazes met and looked at Faine.

‘Hehe, he had weird eye-powers?’ he asked and smiled nervously at Faine. ‘I think I heard you guys talk about something like that’

‘I don’t know’ Faine lied ‘try and see if you die’

‘Hey, no one has died!’ Dexter snorted

‘Haha, really funny!’ the guy smiled nervously ‘But I think I got something for you, they stink of you!’

He held up a pair of sunglasses right before Dexter’s nose. It was his Ray-Ban’s, without scratches!

‘T-thanks’ Dexter said and put on his glasses. He felt naked without them, and it was annoying getting reminded of his weird eye powers. ‘But do I really smell that much?’

‘Your kind always does’ the guy uncovered his eyes and sighed out of relief.

 _“Your kind”_ , what did the guy mean by that? Dexter scratched his head, but the guy continued talking before he had the chance to ask.

‘I’m Sven, by the way’ the guy said and smiled at Dexter ‘Faine’s awesome buddy and a fantastic keeper!’

‘Sven?’ Dexter laughed ‘What kind of name is that?’

‘Stupid, isn’t it?’ Faine agreed

‘Hey, it’s Swedish!’ Sven crossed his arms and gave them an angry look

‘Even worse, a Swedish satyr’

‘Haha, indeed…Uh, what’s a satyr?’ Dexter looked confused at Faine then Sven, who both started laughing. Dexter blushed and looked down at the ground, regretting his stupid question.

‘This is a satyr!’ Sven said and pointed on himself.

‘And those two too’ Faine pointed at Ray and Ban that looked as confused as Dexter.

‘We’re half goat, half human’ Sven explained, which still didn’t make any sense to Dexter. Half goat? He guessed that was the reason to the weird legt, but how could that be possible?

‘Ooh, then I get it!’ Ban said and looked at Ray, pointing at his chest ‘S-satyr…’

‘I recognize that!’ Ray said and they looked at each other with big eyes ‘Satyr…’

‘You guys are weird’ Sven smiled and laughed ‘You didn’t know that?’

The boys shook their heads and Sven made a thinking face.

‘Why’s that?’ he asked

‘We don’t know’ Ban asked

‘We have never know anything’ Ray filled in

‘Hmm’ Sven scratched his chin ‘What about we take you guys to camp too?’

‘What camp?’

‘The camp I’ll take långeman to’ Sven pointed at Dexter ‘There’s others like you there!’

‘Reeally?’ Ray and Ban asked ‘Is there more of us?’

‘Are you gonna take me to a goat-camp?’ Dexter burs out

‘First, we’re satyrs! Not goats only’ Sven said and put his hands to his tights ‘and second, the camps are for guys like you, but there’s satyrs there too!’

‘And what exactly is a guy like me?’ Dexter asked. He was getting tired of all the weird things happening. Why could he never get any straight answers? He felt how a headache started growing from all the confusion. It was bad enough losing his memories; meeting all the unnatural was about to break him.

‘Bah, enough talking’ Faine said ‘You’ll get explanations later, let’s just take you to camp’

‘Heck no!’ Dexter said and rose to his feet. The dizziness came back and he felt the nausea up to his throat, but he refused to fall down on the ground again. ‘I don’t want to go to your stupid camp’

‘I never asked you what you wanted’ Faine asked coldly and narrowed his eyes. ‘But to make it easier for you, you better cooperate’

Dexter snorted; he really didn’t feel like to cooperative with them. He backed away a few unstable steps and almost fell over. To play it off, he held up his fists like he was ready for a fight. He wasn’t. He’d just want to run away. Faine scared him with all his confidence and if it he really killed the bull, then Dexter really didn’t want to mess with him.

Faine shook his head.

‘I’d really want to beat you up’ he said ‘But Chiron has made clear that he wants living campers, and also, I think you may be of use one day…’

‘What do you mean?’ Dexter asked. ‘Who’s Chiron’

‘You’ll meet him’ Faine answered ‘And he’ll explain everything for you, it’s not my job. Now, you need a ride’

He started digging in his pockets and brought out a golden coin of some sort that Dexter never seen before. Faine mumbled something on another language and dropped the coin. But instead to bounce on the wet asphalt, it sank into the ground and disappeared. Dexter widened his eyes, _what the heck?_ Then he started to hear a low, humming sound. First he thought it was thunder, then it grew louder and it sounded more like an old engine. Then suddenly, a big cloud of gray smoke roared up from the ground and stopped with a whining sound. Dexter coughed and looked at the cloud. It formed the shape of a car with a glowing taxi-sign and black windows. Not until Sven opened the door to the backseat, Dexter realized that the smoke actually was the car. Dexter didn’t even care to get surprised, nothing seemed to make sense anymore.

‘Come on, jump in’ Sven said and waved at Dexter, Ray and Ban. Dexter couldn’t see another choice than jumping in, despites, Ray and Ban had quickly climbed in the car and waved at him so follow. They seemed excited; getting told that there are many other goat-legged guys at the place, they had their reasons. Dexter thought, Sven had said there was people like him there too, but he just couldn’t figure what he meant by that. He didn’t even know who he was, so who were the people like him? Were they also amnesiac teenagers with strange eyes?

‘Ok, then’ he sighed and entered the car. Sven looked at him with a troubled face and scratched his head.

‘There’s no room for me…’ He said and looked at Faine ‘Hey, write one of these letters again!’

‘Oh, please!’ Faine sighed, but didn’t argue. He brought out a piece of paper and a pencil and quickly scratched something down. He folded the letter and handed it to Dexter.

‘Give this to the camp director’ he said shortly

Sven pressed through him and stick his head inside the car.

‘To Halfblood-Hill’ he shouted and then slammed the door shut.

‘Alright, next, Camp Half-Blood!’ a shaky voice said from the driver’s seat

‘Hit the gas, Tempest!’ another one said

The car shot away so fast that Dexter his head on the backseat.

‘Aah, easy!’ he groaned and tried to hold his head up.

Dexter looked at the one sitting in the front seat, what sort of craziness was the driver? He saw the back of three heads hustling in the driver’s seat.

‘Uh, you’re _three_?’ he asked and all the heads turned towards him. Dexter gave up another one of his extremely high-pitched screams. All three of them looked like old, ladies that would have been buried long ago. They were both tooth and eye-less except for one that had one tooth and one creepy green eye.

‘Oh boy, don’t scream like that!’ one of them said, spitting in Dexter face while talking.

‘My ears hurts!’ the eyed one said

‘Keep the eye on the road, Wasp!’ the third one shouted

The eyed one turned around in right time to shout at the one holding the wheel to steer left, avoiding crashing into a big factory-building. The car rocked to left and right constantly and Dexter had to hold on to whatever he could to not fly around in the backseat.

‘Oh, god’ he moaned and closed his eyes, feeling the nausea coming back. ‘Please, make this be over soon!’

 


	6. A Demigod

Of all the weird things that had happened Dexter, the car ride was the worst one. They swished through New York, making sudden turns and hopped when they drove over sleeping policemen and curbs. Dexter’s head threw around so hard it almost felt like it would let go from the rest of his body. The three blind old ladies in the driver’s seat yelled at each other, fighting over an eye and a tooth as if they had totally forgotten they were driving a car didn’t calm Dexter down. He groaned and tried not to vomit. His two friends, Ray and Ban, sat next to Dexter, both screaming and laughing, like they were riding a rollercoaster.

The ride seemed to go on for an eternity or two, but at last one of the ladies finally jammed on the breaks and the car stopped with a whining sound. Dexter flew forward and hit his head on the seat in front of him. He moaned and put his head in his hands, taking a few deep breaths and tried to force down the nausea. 

”Camp Half-Blood!” the three ladies said together and smiled. Dexter lifted his head and dizzyingly checking out the land outside. They had stopped in the middle of nowhere. He saw a big forest on his left and a hill, with a single pine tree on the top, to the right, followed by a forest further away, but there was nothing that looked like a camp.

”But…” he started

”Now, off with you!” one of the ladies said. ”Come on, we don’t have all day!” 

Not like Dexter wanted to stay with the three grandmas in the car, but what would he do in the middle of a forest? The ladies started complaining about him being too slow and they had other things to do and to avoid getting worse headache, Dexter stepped out of the car. Immediately his buttery knees collapsed under the weight of his body and he fell to the ground, moaning out of exhaust. He wanted to lie down and sleep, right where he was. His head ached, his stomach felt like it had been turned inside out and his ears ringed constantly. Ray and Ban ran up to him, asking if he was okay. The ladies roared away with the car, leaving Dexter, Ray and Ban in a big cloud of smoke. 

”Wha-What now?” Ray coughed and looked around “Didn’t they say something about a camp? We are like… nowhere”

Dexter sat up. Ray was right. It was nothing that told that people even been there, except for the road. At least it had stopped raining and the sun peeked out from holes in the thick cover of clouds above them. 

“That Faine-guy tricked us?” Dexter suggested “Doesn’t surprise me, he seemed like a douche”

”No, can’t you smell it?” Ban said. Dexter and Ray gave him an asking look and sniffed the air.

”I can’t smell anything” Dexter said

”I can just smell Dexter” Ray shrugged “And he smells bad”

”Hey!”

”Come on, are you nose-blind?” Ban rolled his eyes and knocked on Ray’s forehead ”Are you really sure it’s Dexter you’re smelling?”

Ray put his hands to his hips, but before he could start complaining Ban cut him off: ”Just try again, really carefully!” 

Ray sighed and sniffed the air again. ”Yeah, so what? I can just smell-… Ooh” Ray widened his eyes and started breathing in air even heavier. He walked a few steps before turning towards Ban again.

”I can feel it!” he said and smiled ”It smells like… multiplied Dexter’s!”

”What?” Dexter asked, but Ray and Ban didn’t seem like noticing him. They started running up the hill, leaving Dexter behind, who yelled after them and tried to get up on his feet.

He started slow by walking up the hill, but ended up crawling over the edge. He panted and looked up at his friends. Ban watched with awe on something down the other side and Ray stood frozen and stared at the pine tree. At first, Dexter didn’t see what he was looking at; there was nothing about the tree that was different. Then he saw a purple tube-like thing surrounding the trunk of the tree. Dexter scowled and blinked a few times, was it normal that tubes had scales? And wing-looking flaps? Not until the tube lifted his head and looked at them with big, yellow eyes Dexter could tell what it was. He screamed and jumped backwards. He tripped over his own feet and rolled down the hill. Ray squeaked and tumbled down the hill after Dexter and Ban stood on the top and looked confused. 

”M-Monster!” Ray and Dexter bleated and pointed at the snake-like monster behind Ban. Ban made a chicken-like scream and ran down the hill. The snake-monster tilted its head, before shaking it and then lying down again, probably going back to sleep. 

”What is happening here?” a voice spoke behind Dexter, Ray and Ban.

Dexter screamed again and spun around. He saw a bunch of kids in different ages standing around them and looked at them. Some looked confused and some shocked, but most of them smiled and tried to hold down their laughter. The voice that had spoken came from a grown up, middle aged man with brown hair and beard who made his way through the crowd towards Dexter and his friends. He looked nice and pretty normal, except for his legs. Waist down he had a complete body of a white stallion, like one of these mythological creatures Dexter could recall seeing in games and movies.

”Monster!” Dexter screamed again and tried to get up and run, but ended up lying on the ground with the mouth full of grass. Ray and Ban shrieked and ran halfway up the hill until they realized that it was another monster at the tree and instead started running around in circles. The kids laughed as Dexter crawled backwards and looked with terrified eyes at the horse-man. 

The horse-man smiled, but Dexter wasn’t sure if it meant “Excuse the laughs, they don’t mean it” or “Excuse me, did you just call me monster?” and Dexter was too scared to dare asking him.

”Hush, children. It’s okay, there’s no monster here!” the horse-man said with a calm voice.  
Dexter lifted a trembling finger and pointed at him “then what the heck are you?!”

”I’m Chiron. I’m a centaur and a friendly one!” the horse-man said and gave him a forced smile. “So there’s no need for calling me monster!” It was something special about his appearance, but Dexter couldn’t put his finger on what it was. His brown eyes felt old, like they were thousands of years old and had seen much more than any old man had done in a lifetime. But still, they gleamed of life and Dexter got a feel that the man was a really caring man, a little father-like. The man’s aura was so calm it affected the surroundings; the children quiet down, Ray and Ban stopped running around and screaming and even Dexter felt how his panic was calming down.

”C-Chiron?” Dexter asked and Chiron nodded.

”Ooh, that’s the guy Faine-dude was talking about!” Ban said

”Aah, yeah! That’s right!” Ray nodded 

”Oh, so Faine send you?” Chiron asked ”How’s it with him? It was a long time since he was here”

”Bah, who cares?” Dexter muttered

”It was a hard time to even make him eat, now he works outside camp on his own will!” Chiron smiled and shook his head, probably thinking something like: “they grow up so fast!”.  
”Well, that aside, now you, son…what’s your name?”

“Dexter” Dexter answered

”Aah, Dexter” Chrion smiled warmly ”Why don’t you come with me and tell me your story?” he gestured towards a big blue house a few hundred meters away.

Dexter never had time to analyze his surroundings before, but when they walked towards “the big house” (which was what Chiron had called it) he had plenty of time. His knees were still shaky and his muscles numb, so he needed support to even stand up. Chiron let Dexter hold onto his horseback while walking which saved Dexter several times when he almost stumbled over his own feet. 

Dexter looked at their surroundings. He couldn’t believe that Faine actually had told them the truth; there really had been a camp. Kids was scattered all over the place, some far younger than Dexter and some older. All wore the same orange t-shirt with black letters saying “Camp Half-Blood”. Dexter saw a circle of cabins where several orange-shirted campers walked in and out of them. On the other side of the Big House a wide field of one sort of plant stretched out and people picked and filled baskets of red berries, maybe it was strawberries. He saw kids doing all sorts of different activities: archery, volleyball, wall climbing and canoeing in a lake that was located in the middle of the camp. The whole camp was settled in the bottom of a valley and was surrounded by forest, except for the far end, where an endless blue of water glittered in the sun. The wind carried smell of salt and sand from the blue-green sea and Dexter couldn’t resist stopping and fill his lungs with freshening air. It felt good with the warming sun and the wind’s stroking his cheek, like on any beautiful summer day. Suddenly, every problem disappeared, just like they’d done when he, Ray and Ban sat in that Jacuzzi earlier that day. It all was here and now, no troubles existed. He’d lost his memories, so what? It was sunny and warm. He’d met supernatural monster that wanted to eat him, whatever! The birds were singing and he just wanted to lie down on the beach and watch the glistening blue waves. Dexter closed his eyes and sighed out of relief, he felt free.

Unfortunately, that feeling only lasted for a few seconds. He started to feel his aching muscles again. The nausea was about to grow worse and his knees shook of exhaust. He groaned when Chiron finally sat him down on a chair on the terrace of the Big House. Ray and Ban were directed to sit down next to him. Dexter had almost forgotten they were there with him; they’d been so calm and quiet. 

Chiron told Dexter to wait there and went inside the house. Dexter didn’t protest, he laid down his head on the table in front of him and sighed. Soon Chiron rolled out of the house again. Dexter frowned and took a second look at the drastically shorter Chiron. Now sitting in a wheelchair with a blanked over his lap and without any signs of a horse body waist down. It looked like it never had been there. Had Dexter imagined it all? He wanted to ask him, but Chiron gave him a glass filled with golden liquid and ordered him to drink it.

When thinking about it, Dexter felt how thirsty and hungry he was. It didn’t surprise him; he hadn’t eaten anything since about lunch-time, and it was maybe even past dinner, and had emptied his stomach several times since then. He grabbed the glass and drank. Dexter never thought it would taste like a mixture of Fanta Orange and PEZ candy with taste of sour blue raspberry and never that it would taste so good! After two large gulps the glass was empty and immediately Dexter felt how the exhaustion faded and soon he felt warm and fresh again.  
”Woah, spicy” Dexter smacked with his mouth and looked at Chiron ”What exactly was that?”

”Nectar” Chiron answered and smiled ”Feeling better?”

”Are you kidding?” Dexter answered and looked at his hands ”I’m feeling great! It’s weird… how…what…Can I have another one?”

”No, I’m sorry. You only drink when you need to, or you’ll burn up” Chiron said

Dexter laughed, but stopped when he realized that Chiron hadn’t been joking with him. “Eehm, what?” Dexter twisted in his chair. 

”Listen, Dexter” Chiron said and gave Dexter a serious look ”You mind telling me your story? Exactly how it was?”

Dexter didn’t mind at all. He told Chiron everything he remembered, which wasn’t much. He told him about how he’d woken up on a railway without knowing anything about himself. He told him about the meeting with Madame Luck and about Mormo the Moron who tried to eat him and his newly found friends. Ray and Ban filled in with comments like: “That was awesome!” and “It was my idea!” every once in a while. 

Chiron was a good listener; he sat quiet and nodded while Dexter talked and didn’t seem as shocked about all the weird things Dexter told him about. When the story was finished, Chiron sat quiet in his wheelchair with a vague frown in his face. 

“That’s an interesting story” he said at last

”I-I know it sounds crazy but…” Dexter started to explain, but stopped himself. Chiron’s eyes and expression told him that Chiron really believed him. Well, it maybe wasn’t that weird, the man had a body of a horse. Or at least he had had one; Dexter was ninety-nine percent sure!

“There’s much craziness in this world, but it may not make it less real” Chiron said “Take your friends as an example, the thought of satyrs existing sounds crazy, but still they’re sitting there, fully alive”

”Makes sense” Dexter agreed. He was getting what Chiron wanted to tell him. It wasn’t him that was going crazy; it was the world around him! ”And the bull, it was real too!” 

”I’m sure it was!” Chiron continued ”As real as the gods – the ones you call the Greek and Roman gods – is! The powerful forces that give light and life into this world, and you, their children, are very much real!”

Dexter went silent. He didn’t get at all what Chiron was trying to tell him “That’s crazy!” he said at last.

Thunder rumbled high above them. Dexter flinched and looked at the sky. It was clearly blue, not a cloud in sight. Dexter started thinking about Madame Luck and all these stuffed animals. Was Chiron also a crazy witch?

”Easy now, son” Chiron said calmly “Saying the gods being crazy isn’t the wisest thing to do”

”But that is crazy!” Dexter cried and rose from his chair. Angry thunder rumbled again from clear blue sky. ”God? How? Why?”

”Now now, lad. Gods -in plural- not God with capital G” Chiron put a gentle hand on Dexter’s shoulder, directed him to sit down again. ”We’re talking about gods of nature, weather and luck. Those kinds of gods”

Dexter forced himself to calm down. Even thought he’d met many crazy things since he woke up on that railway, but claiming that gods existed was too much! 

“Dude…gods? Really” Dexter said and gave Chiron a doubting look, hoping he would burst out laughing and clap on his shoulder saying: “I really got you, boy!”, but he didn’t. Chiron’s face remained calm and serious.

“Greek gods, you say?” Dexter asked ”Like, buds wrapped in bed sheets and grapes in their hair?”

Chiron smiled ”They are not dressed in bedsheets anymore, but yes, it’s indeed those kind of gods”

Dexter remained silent, trying to wrap his head around it. At last he sighed, massaged his temples and stared down on the table. “What has that with me to do anyways?” he asked and looked at Chiron 

“They are the very reason why you are here” Chiron gestured out over the camp “This is a camp suited for you and all the other offspring of the gods-…”

“Offspring?”

“Yes, Dexter” Chiron paused and looked deep into Dexter’s sunglasses “You’re a demigod. Child of a god.”


	7. Camp Half-Blood

Of all the weird things that had happened Dexter, the car ride was the worst one. They swished through New York, making sudden turns and hopped when they drove over sleeping policemen and curbs. Dexter’s head threw around so hard it almost felt like it would let go from the rest of his body. The three blind old ladies in the driver’s seat yelled at each other, fighting over an eye and a tooth as if they had totally forgotten they were driving a car didn’t calm Dexter down. He groaned and tried not to vomit. His two friends, Ray and Ban, sat next to Dexter, both screaming and laughing, like they were riding a rollercoaster.

The ride seemed to go on for an eternity or two, but at last one of the ladies finally jammed on the breaks and the car stopped with a whining sound. Dexter flew forward and hit his head on the seat in front of him. He moaned and put his head in his hands, taking a few deep breaths and tried to force down the nausea. 

”Camp Half-Blood!” the three ladies said together and smiled. Dexter lifted his head and dizzyingly checking out the land outside. They had stopped in the middle of nowhere. He saw a big forest on his left and a hill, with a single pine tree on the top, to the right, followed by a forest further away, but there was nothing that looked like a camp.

”But…” he started

”Now, off with you!” one of the ladies said. ”Come on, we don’t have all day!” 

Not like Dexter wanted to stay with the three grandmas in the car, but what would he do in the middle of a forest? The ladies started complaining about him being too slow and they had other things to do and to avoid getting worse headache, Dexter stepped out of the car. Immediately his buttery knees collapsed under the weight of his body and he fell to the ground, moaning out of exhaust. He wanted to lie down and sleep, right where he was. His head ached, his stomach felt like it had been turned inside out and his ears ringed constantly. Ray and Ban ran up to him, asking if he was okay. The ladies roared away with the car, leaving Dexter, Ray and Ban in a big cloud of smoke. 

”Wha-What now?” Ray coughed and looked around “Didn’t they say something about a camp? We are like… nowhere”

Dexter sat up. Ray was right. It was nothing that told that people even been there, except for the road. At least it had stopped raining and the sun peeked out from holes in the thick cover of clouds above them. 

“That Faine-guy tricked us?” Dexter suggested “Doesn’t surprise me, he seemed like a douche”

”No, can’t you smell it?” Ban said. Dexter and Ray gave him an asking look and sniffed the air.

”I can’t smell anything” Dexter said

”I can just smell Dexter” Ray shrugged “And he smells bad”

”Hey!”

”Come on, are you nose-blind?” Ban rolled his eyes and knocked on Ray’s forehead ”Are you really sure it’s Dexter you’re smelling?”

Ray put his hands to his hips, but before he could start complaining Ban cut him off: ”Just try again, really carefully!” 

Ray sighed and sniffed the air again. ”Yeah, so what? I can just smell-… Ooh” Ray widened his eyes and started breathing in air even heavier. He walked a few steps before turning towards Ban again.

”I can feel it!” he said and smiled ”It smells like… multiplied Dexter’s!”

”What?” Dexter asked, but Ray and Ban didn’t seem like noticing him. They started running up the hill, leaving Dexter behind, who yelled after them and tried to get up on his feet.

He started slow by walking up the hill, but ended up crawling over the edge. He panted and looked up at his friends. Ban watched with awe on something down the other side and Ray stood frozen and stared at the pine tree. At first, Dexter didn’t see what he was looking at; there was nothing about the tree that was different. Then he saw a purple tube-like thing surrounding the trunk of the tree. Dexter scowled and blinked a few times, was it normal that tubes had scales? And wing-looking flaps? Not until the tube lifted his head and looked at them with big, yellow eyes Dexter could tell what it was. He screamed and jumped backwards. He tripped over his own feet and rolled down the hill. Ray squeaked and tumbled down the hill after Dexter and Ban stood on the top and looked confused. 

”M-Monster!” Ray and Dexter bleated and pointed at the snake-like monster behind Ban. Ban made a chicken-like scream and ran down the hill. The snake-monster tilted its head, before shaking it and then lying down again, probably going back to sleep. 

”What is happening here?” a voice spoke behind Dexter, Ray and Ban.

Dexter screamed again and spun around. He saw a bunch of kids in different ages standing around them and looked at them. Some looked confused and some shocked, but most of them smiled and tried to hold down their laughter. The voice that had spoken came from a grown up, middle aged man. He had brown hair and beard who made his way through the crowd towards Dexter and his friends. He looked nice and pretty normal, except for his legs. Waist down there was a body of an white horse, like if his body had replaced the head of the horse.

”Monster!” Dexter screamed again and tried to get up and run, but ended up lying on the ground with the mouth full of grass. Ray and Ban shrieked and ran halfway up the hill until they realized that it was another monster at the tree. With no idea of where to run, they started running around in circles. The kids laughed as Dexter crawled backwards and looked with terrified eyes at the horse-man. 

The horse-man smiled, but Dexter wasn’t sure if it meant “Excuse the laughs, they don’t mean it” or “Excuse me, did you just call me monster?” and Dexter was too scared to dare asking him.

”Hush, children. It’s okay, there’s no monster here!” the horse-man said with a calm voice.   
Dexter lifted a trembling finger and pointed at him “then what the heck are you?!”

”I’m Chiron. I’m a centaur and a friendly one!” the horse-man said and gave him a forced smile. “So there’s no need for calling me monster!” It was something special about his appearance, but Dexter couldn’t put his finger on what it was. His brown eyes felt old, like they were thousands of years old and had seen much more than any old man had done in a lifetime. But still, they gleamed of life and Dexter got a feel that the man was a caring man, like a father. The man’s aura was so calm it affected the surroundings; the children quiet down, Ray and Ban stopped running around and screaming and even Dexter felt how his panic was calming down.

”C-Chiron?” Dexter asked and Chiron nodded.

”Ooh, that’s the guy Faine-dude was talking about!” Ban said

”Aah, yeah! That’s right!” Ray nodded 

”Oh, so Faine send you?” Chiron asked ”How’s it with him? It was a long time since he was here”

”Bah, who cares?” Dexter muttered

”It was a hard time to even make him eat, now he works outside camp on his own will!” Chiron smiled and shook his head, probably thinking something like: “they grow up so fast!”.   
”Well, that aside, now you, son…what’s your name?”

“Dexter” Dexter answered

”Aah, Dexter” Chrion gave him a worm smile ”Why don’t you come with me and tell me your story?” he gestured towards a big blue house a few hundred meters away.

Dexter never had time to analyze his surroundings before, but when they walked towards “the big house” (which was what Chiron had called it) he had plenty of time. His knees were still shaky and his muscles numb, so he needed support to even stand up. Chiron let Dexter hold onto his horseback while walking which prevented him to stumble and fall. 

Dexter looked at their surroundings. He couldn’t believe that Faine actually had told them the truth; there really had been a camp. Kids was scattered all over the place, some far younger than Dexter and some older. All wore the same orange t-shirt with black letters saying “Camp Half-Blood”. Dexter saw a circle of cabins where several orange-shirted campers walked in and out of them. On the other side of the Big House a wide field of plants with red berries stretched out. He saw kids doing all sorts of different activities: archery, volleyball, wall climbing and canoeing in a lake in the middle of the camp. The whole camp was settled in the bottom of a valley, surrounded by forest, except for the far end, where an endless blue of water glittered in the sun. The wind carried smell of salt and sand from the blue-green sea and Dexter couldn’t resist stopping and fill his lungs with freshening air. It felt good with the warming sun and the wind’s stroking his cheek, like on any beautiful summer day. Suddenly, every problem disappeared, just like they’d done when he, Ray and Ban sat in that Jacuzzi earlier that day. It all was here and now, no troubles existed. He’d lost his memories, so what? It was sunny and warm. He’d met supernatural monster that wanted to eat him, whatever! The birds were singing and he just wanted to lie down on the beach and watch the glistening blue waves. Dexter closed his eyes and sighed out of relief, he felt free.

Unfortunately, that feeling only lasted for a few seconds. He started to feel his aching muscles again. The nausea was about to grow worse and his knees shook of exhaust. He groaned when Chiron finally sat him down on a chair on the terrace of the Big House. Ray and Ban were directed to sit down next to him. Dexter had almost forgotten they were there with him; they’d been so calm and quiet. 

Chiron told Dexter to wait there and went inside the house. Dexter didn’t protest, he laid down his head on the table in front of him and sighed. Soon Chiron rolled out of the house again. Dexter frowned and took a second look at the drastically shorter Chiron. Now sitting in a wheelchair with a blanked over his lap and without any signs of a horse body waist down. It looked like it never had been there. Had Dexter imagined it all? He wanted to ask him, but Chiron gave him a glass filled with golden liquid and ordered him to drink it.

When thinking about it, Dexter felt how thirsty and hungry he was. It didn’t surprise him; he hadn’t eaten anything since about lunch-time. It was maybe even past dinner, and he had emptied his stomach several times since then. He grabbed the glass and drank. Dexter never thought it would taste like a mixture of Fanta Orange and PEZ candy with taste of sour blue raspberry. And he would never think it would taste so good! After two large gulps the glass was empty and immediately Dexter felt how the exhaustion faded and soon he felt warm and fresh again.   
”Woah, spicy” Dexter smacked with his mouth and looked at Chiron ”What exactly was that?”

”Nectar” Chiron answered and smiled ”Feeling better?”

”Are you kidding?” Dexter answered and looked at his hands ”I’m feeling great! It’s weird… how…what…Can I have another one?”

”No, I’m sorry. You only drink when you need to, or you’ll burn up” Chiron said

Dexter laughed, but stopped when he realized that Chiron hadn’t been joking with him. “Eehm, what?” Dexter twisted in his chair. 

”Listen, Dexter” Chiron said and gave Dexter a serious look ”You mind telling me your story? Exactly how it was?”

Dexter didn’t mind at all. He told Chiron everything he remembered, which wasn’t much. He told him about how he’d woken up on a railway without knowing anything about himself. He told him about the meeting with Madame Luck and about Mormo the Moron who tried to eat him and his newly found friends. Ray and Ban filled in with comments like: “That was awesome!” and “It was my idea!” every once in a while. 

Chiron was a good listener; he sat quiet and nodded while Dexter talked and didn’t seem as shocked about all the weird things that had happened Dexter. When the story was finished, Chiron sat quiet in his wheelchair with a vague frown in his face. 

“That’s an interesting story” he said at last

”I-I know it sounds crazy but…” Dexter started to explain, but stopped himself. Chiron’s eyes and expression told him that Chiron really believed him. Well, it maybe wasn’t that weird, the man had a body of a horse. Or at least he had had one; Dexter was ninety-nine percent sure!

“There’s much craziness in this world, but it may not make it less real” Chiron said “Take your friends as an example, the thought of satyrs existing sounds crazy, but still they’re sitting there, fully alive”

”Makes sense” Dexter agreed. He was getting what Chiron wanted to tell him. It wasn’t him that was going crazy; it was the world around him! ”And the bull, it was real too!” 

”I’m sure it was!” Chiron continued ”As real as the gods – the ones you call the Greek and Roman gods – is! The powerful forces that give light and life into this world, and you, their children, are very much real!”

Dexter went silent. He didn’t get at all what Chiron was trying to tell him “That’s crazy!” he said at last.

Thunder rumbled high above them. Dexter flinched and looked at the sky. It was clearly blue, not a cloud in sight. Dexter started thinking about Madame Luck and all these stuffed animals. Was Chiron also a crazy witch?

”Easy now, son” Chiron said calmly “Saying the gods being crazy isn’t the wisest thing to do”

”But that is crazy!” Dexter cried and rose from his chair. Angry thunder rumbled again from clear blue sky. ”God? How? Why?”

”Now now, lad. Gods -in plural- not God with capital G” Chiron put a gentle hand on Dexter’s shoulder, directed him to sit down again. ”We’re talking about gods of nature, weather and luck. Those kinds of gods”

Dexter forced himself to calm down. Even thought he’d met many crazy things since he woke up on that railway, but claiming that gods existed was too much! 

“Dude…gods? Really” Dexter said and gave Chiron a doubting look, hoping he would burst out laughing and clap on his shoulder saying: “I really got you, boy!”, but he didn’t. Chiron’s face remained calm and serious.

“Greek gods, you say?” Dexter asked ”Like, buds wrapped in bed sheets and grapes in their hair?”

Chiron smiled ”They are not dressed in bedsheets anymore, but yes, it’s indeed those kind of gods”

Dexter remained silent, trying to wrap his head around it. At last he sighed, massaged his temples and stared down on the table. “What has that with me to do anyways?” he asked and looked at Chiron 

“They are the very reason why you are here” Chiron gestured out over the camp “This is a camp suited for you and all the other offspring of the gods-…”

“Offspring?”

“Yes, Dexter” Chiron paused and looked deep into Dexter’s sunglasses “You’re a demigod. Child of a god.”


	8. A Prophecy, a Quest

The following week had been both wonderful and horrible at the same time for Dexter. He’d been introduced to most of the activities of camp. Archery, Pegasus riding and riding the rapids had been the funniest once Dexter got the hang of it. Lessons in ancient Greek and Greek mythology had been given him by Vixen. Though, they had been more of an hour of questions-and-answers (Dexter still couldn’t believe he was a son of a god). Then they had had duties where the whole cabin worked together. It was when they were chopping wood it all started.

Someone had decided to pull a prank on Dexter. He was their favorite prank-victim, because of his “priceless reactions”. That time someone had attached firecrackers to his shoes and fired them off. Panicking, Dexter had jumped around and shrieked. Eventually stumbling over a pile of chopped woods and dropped his sunglasses. He hadn’t told anyone but Vixen and Terrwyn about his eyes, too scared that people would be scared of him if they knew. So the whole cabin had been curious about what he was hiding behind those shades, resulting in everyone running around and screaming in terror.

The story about the event spread like a disease and soon everyone knew about them. That warm and cozy feeling of belonging at the camp suddenly wasn’t as warm and cozy anymore. Vixen and her friends had tried to cheer him up and kept him company on their free time.

“They’ll get over it” Vixen often told him “Just give them time to get used to it and everything will go back to normal”

But Dexter had doubted her. How could it ever go back to normal when everyday just seemed to get worse than the day before? It hadn’t been enough just by campers avoiding him, they had started to taunt him too! Mainly it was that fighter who had lost a battle during Dexter’s first day at camp, Troy was his name. Every time Dexter ran into the beefy guy, he started smirking and asked him if someone had died of terror yet. Several times Dexter had told him that they were, by his knowledge, not deadly, but the Mohawk never listened. The first time Dexter went red of anger and had to struggle to not give the brunette a straight right. But as the days went on and Troy didn't seem to be able to say anything else, Dexter just grew tired of him and started ignoring him.

“I’m the one getting used to it, not them!” Dexter muttered and splashed with his feet in the water.

“Oh, they will, Dexter” Ban assured him “It’ll get better…sooner or later”

Dexter snorted and skipped a flat rock over the lake. He, Ray, Ban were sitting on the pier out over the canoe lake, enjoying the summer warmth. Ray and Ban had been employed by the camp to serve the camp director. On his second day at camp was the first time Dexter had seen the camp director. Vixen had told that they addressed him by “Mr. D” and Dexter had nearly choked on his steak.

“What, seriously?!” he had laughed so everyone at the pavilion heard him “Whoever who calls himself Mr. D must be really cocky!”

Not a sound could be heard at the pavilion. Every eye was on Dexter. Some demigods looked chocked and terrified, some cried of silent laughter. Then Mr. D stood up so hastily that his chair fell over and crashed onto the floor. Several campers, including Dexter, had jumped by surprise and looked at the camp director in terror. With a face red as a tomato, the god yelled at Dexter, threatening to blast him to pieces. With a little help from Chiron, Dexter slid away by just getting a week of detention.

So Dexter had barely had any free time at all. While everyone else got to enjoy the summer, play and laugh together, he had to do dirty work. Everything from cleaning the toilets with his own toothbrush, and washing the windows of the Big House to doing Mr. D’s filthy laundry. Why the god even needed someone to do his laundry, Dexter wasn’t sure of. Couldn’t he snap his fingers and make clean clothes appear, or did he just want to give Dexter extra dirty job to do?

“Started off my time here damn good,” Dexter muttered bitterly “How lucky I am, huh?”

“But you’ve served your detention, at least!” Ban said, trying to get him on more cheerful thought “Have some more strawberries!”

It was true; Dexter had finally finished the punishments and was enjoying his first free time. He looked at the pile of red berries. Ray and Ban had smuggled some from when they worked at the strawberries fields. Sighing, Dexter took a handful and shoved them in his mouth. The sweet taste in the warm summer sun, Dexter couldn’t but enjoy the moment.

After a while of Ray and Ban telling stupid stories about pranks they may or may not have committed, Dexter had forgotten all about his worries and finally could relax.

“Wait, so he went around for three days without noticing?” Dexter asked, crying of laughter.

“Yes, yes!” Ray and Ban laughed, clenching their stomachs.

They laughed until their stomachs ached and tears flooded. Still giggling, they ate some more strawberries. Dexter opened his mouth as if to say something, but then a dark shadow hovered over them. The sun behind them blinded Dexter, preventing him from seeing who it was. Before he could wonder too long, he found out when the shadow roared in anger.

“And what do you think you’re doing, huh?! Stealing strawberries from the fields?!” Mr D’s voice shook the ground and made Dexter shriek in fear.

“It wasn’t me, it was them!” he cried, pointing at Ray and Ban

“No! Him! Him!” Ray and Ban bleated, trying to hide behind Dexter while he tried to push them before him.

The shadow cackled and sat down. Not until then, Dexter could see the person and it was way too small and slim to be Mr. D. Vixen's dear friend Bliss beamed down at them, still snickering. “You guys are far too hilarious!” she cackled and wiped a tear from her eye.

Behind her stood Mary, rolling her eyes and crossed her arms as much she could with that strap of hers.

“I-… I don’t understand” Dexter panted, looking around in search for the god.

“Well, I can tell you that I’m kinda pro at impressions” Bliss stuck out her tongue and made the peace sign with her fingers.

“Was that you?” Ban asked and widened his eyes

“Th-there’s no Mr. D?” Ray stuttered and peeked out from behind his brother.

“No Mr. D for sure!” Bliss assured him, and the three boys relaxed.

“Damn, you scared me!” Dexter clenched his heart and took a deep breather.

“I noticed” Bliss giggled and then she looked at the pile of strawberries “Ah, they look tasty! You don’t mind don’t you?”

Without minding getting an answer, she picked up and munched on a big red berry and smiled widely at the boys.

“We didn’t come here to eat their strawberries, Bliss!” Mary said and rolled her eyes.

“But they taste sooo good!” Bliss said and stove a handful strawberries in her mouth. She chewed for a moment and swallowed before she continued: “Oh well, I was about to ask you if you’d want to join me and practice some archery” She waved her finger for him to come with her.

“Now?” Dexter asked and skipped another stone over the water.

“23” Ray said and pouted “Not as good as last time”

“I’m sitting down!” Dexter snorted before getting up on his feet and looking at Bliss.

“Hmm, you seem like a good thrower, how about we try out some knife-throwing too” she said, pinching her chin and grinned at him.

“I’d prefer just throwing stones, but okay” Dexter mumbled. He said goodbye to Ray and Ban before Bliss grabbed his wrist and dragged him along to the arena.

Bliss helped Dexter out to pick a suiting bow for him from the armory. She herself already had one personal. It was a magical bow that could shrink into a bracelet which Bliss wore on her left arm when she didn’t use it.

“I call her Mary!” Bliss said and held up her golden bow.

“Why?” Dexter asked and nocked an arrow to his own bow.

“Just to mess with the original Mary” Bliss whispered and snickered. “Also, she made it for me!”

“Really?” Dexter looked at the bow. It was pretty with a golden color that glittered in the sunshine and neat patterns carved into the wood. “It’s beautiful!”

“Indeed!” Bliss nodded “Many doubt her skill of crafting because she only has one cooperative hand”

Dexter went silent for a while. Hesitating if he would dare ask or not. He drew his bow and let go of the arrow. It soared through the air and pierced right inside the red dot in the middle of the target.

“Bullseye!” Bliss yelled and grinned “Nice ne there! You are growing fast as an archer!”

Cheeks burning red, Dexter let out a flattered laugh and scratched the back of his head.

“Now, you’ve still got a long way to go until you’re as good as me!” Bliss grinned, stacked a few arrows in her drawing hand and leaped. She ran towards a bench on their left side and jumped high up in the air, shot off three arrows before rolling sideways to dampening the fall and finally shooting another four.

It all happened during just a few seconds and Dexter stared at her, his mouth hanging open in amazement. All arrows hit bulls eye as where first three arrows had been pierced through by another arrow. The last arrow stuck out from between the eyes of a dummy an Ares-kid had been practicing on.

“Hey!” the kid called at her

“Just finish him off for you!” Bliss said, winked and gave the kid thumbs up. She turned towards Dexter and laughed at his amazed expression.

“That was… Awesome!” Dexter wheezed when he finally could find any words to say. “You-… you’re…WOW! I’m speechless!”

“Thanks, Dex!” Bliss grinned and ruffled his hair “I’ve had many years of practice. I’m sure you’ll also find your talents and amaze others with it!”

“Well, what that now could be…” He looked at the target and the arrow he had shot himself, feeling stupid how proud he had been only to hit bulls eye. Never that he’d be able to get that good.

“Hey, how about we try out some knife-throwing, huh?” Bliss fist bumped Dexter’s shoulder and she trotted off towards the armory in change of weapons.

Throwing knives was something Dexter really felt that he was good at. Even though he had to warm up and try it out, he quickly learned the techniques and soon the knives hit everywhere he aimed.

Either Bliss had no skill in knife-throwing or she learned her lesson and missed on purpose to not make Dexter feel bad, but he didn’t mind. They had really fun and soon they moved over to dummies and Bliss showed Dexter where to aim if he wanted to hurt, but not kill.

“Not that we fight much with other people” Bliss said “But I guess it’s a good start. Next time I’ll make sure to get some dummies of some monsters” She nodded towards Mary “She’s a great dummy maker!”

Dexter smiled. “That sounds great!”

“Let’s call it for today, then!” Bliss said and stretched to her full length 

“This sure was awesome!” Dexter said cheerfully “Thanks!”

Bliss blushed. “No problem, Dex!” She stuck out her tongue and flicked Dexter’s nose “I’ll make sure to teach you everything I know!”

“That wouldn’t take too long then”

Mary walked up to them, looked at Bliss and held up her wrist, showing a watch that wasn’t there. “Time to go, you’ve had your fun time now!” she said impatiently “Could you help me now?”

“Oh, I didn’t hear that word” Bliss said and made an exaggerated wondering face.

“What word?” Mary snarled and glared at the blue-blonde.

“That word starting with ‘p’ and ending with ‘lease’”

Mary rolled her eyes and primed her lips. When Bliss leaned forward and cupped her hand behind her ear, Mary sighed at last. “Okay, okay! Plea-“

She didn't get to finish due to a loud BANG followed by a whooshing sound. Dexter screamed by surprise and looked around for the source of the noise. The whooshing sound grew louder and louder and soon he had to cover his ears. Mary pointed up at the sky, but it was completely unnecessary since they could clearly see what was going on.

The whole sky had turned bright orange and shifted over to intense red as a big and bright glowing globe soared downwards. The globe disappeared behind the trees in the horizon and they could hear another ‘bang’ before the sky went black and the noise disappeared.

Dexter, Bliss and Mary stared up at the sky in shock. None of them spoke for several minutes and the silence were almost worse for Dexter’s ears than the noise.

“W-was that…?” Dexter finally said and swallowed

“The sun!” Mary wheezed, wide eyes still at the sky “The sun! It went down!”

“Daddy!” Bliss cried and took a few stapling steps backwards. “No! Dad! What’s happened?”

“We gotta find Chiron!” Mary said and looked at Bliss.

Bliss shot off without a word. She ran out of the arena and towards the big house.

“Come on!” Mary said and ran off after Bliss.

Dexter followed. Feeling shaken up, even though he didn’t really know what had just happened. He saw other that was running toward the destination. Most of them looked terrified and shocked, but a few looked as confused as Dexter.

They found Chiron outside the big house, already surrounded by panicking and terrified demigods.

“To the amphitheater! To the amphitheater!” Chiron called over the chaos and gestured towards the said place.

“You heard Chiron!” Mary yelled at a pair of demigods that was still screaming out questions for Chiron. “To the amphitheater!”

Dexter followed them and found Terrwyn, Vixen and the rest for cabin number eleven in a clung down at the bottom.

“Calm down, everybody. Calm down!” Vixen said to her siblings in a calm voice and gestured them to sit down on the benches. “We’ll soon hear what happened and what we’ll do. Hello Dexter, have a seat! Alex, if you wanna help then you’ll have to stop screaming and let go of Kai, you’re suffocating him! ”

Dexter sat down next to Terrwyn, who sat silently and expressionless at one on the benches. The fire flickered in all different colors and the flames went from three meters high to as small as candlelight; reflecting the chaos around the demigods. Dexter dropped his head into his palms, covering out the flickering light from the fire. It did nothing than just worsening the panic with its seizure-like flashing.

It was hard for Dexter to keep track of the time, but it took a long time before the whole camp sat quiet. Chiron stood in the bottom and looked up at the half-bloods. The fire had faded into a faint glow, casting spooky shadows in his pale face. They were all waiting. Waiting for the god and camp director to come back. He had gone to ‘Olympus’ –where or what that was, Dexter had no idea– to find out what was going on. If what was feared had happened really was true or not.

Dexter felt more confused than terrified at that moment. Maybe that was good, since most of the campers were pale as ghosts, especially cabin number seven. They looked worst of all and many of them were even crying. Maybe Dexter didn’t want to know what was going on, for his own best.

The silence was disrupted by a loud crack that made several campers jump in their seats and Dexter, along with some others, shrieked. Mr. D appeared in front of them, next to the bonfire. He looked with a deadly serious expression around and the campers before he spoke:

“Apollo is gone”

Panic broke out again. Campers shouted several questions at ones and others cried out in despair. The god held up one hand and everyone went silent, listening carefully to what he had to say.

“All gods were there except for him” Mr. D continued “Artemis has sent out her hunters and they are now searching the world for him”

As the camp director spoke, a short girl with a red Devilock and punk-styled clothes ran down to the bottom of the amphiteatre. Chiron bent down as the girl whispered something in his ear. He nodded grimly and then clopped forward. Mr. D quieted and looked at the centaur.

“I want all counselors gathered in the big house” he said calmly, but his face had a grim expression.

The counselors of every cabin got up on their feet and made their way towards the big house through the darkness. Several campers complained and wanted to know what was going on, but Chiron ignored them and called Vixen over.

They couldn’t hear anything of the few words Chiron told Vixen, but all campers of cabin number eleven leaned forward and tried to caatch anything they said. Vixen nodded back, but her face wore a doubting expression. She turned around and walked back to her siblings and the unclaimed. Laying a hand on Dexter’s shoulder, Vixen leaned forward and told him in a low voice to come along.

“Why?” Dexter asked her, but she shook her head

“You’ll soon get to know why” she told him and pulled him up on his feet.

With a last glance back at the demigods of Herme’s cabin, Dexter followed Vixen to the big house.

 

 

 

 

“Why’d you bring him?” Meg asked, and glared at Vixen.

Vixen had lead Dexter into a pretty big room on the bottom floor of the sky blue house. From the darkness outside, the light from the lamps stung in Dexter’s eyes and he had to squint. The counselors gathered around a ping-pong table and sat down in chairs around it. Meg scowled from Dexter to Vixen and then to Chiron who just entered the room.

“Why’s the dumbass here?” Meg repeated, but again she got no answer except for Vixen shooting her an angry look.

Vixen showed Dexter down in a chair at the end of the ping-pong table. Chiron, who had sunken down in his wheelchair, parked himself next to him.

Meg snorted, put her feet up on the table and started picking her nails with a big battle knife. Bliss lead by Mary sad down next to Vixen. Bliss looked pale and her eyes were glassy by tears, but she tried to act unbothered. Now and then Dexter could hear a muted sob or see the movement of her wiping off tears from her cheeks.

“We’ve received a prophecy.” Chiron said.

The counselors looked intensely at Chiron. Dexter, whoever, gave him a confused look. What was this ‘prophecy’ he was talking about? What had it to be with him, Dexter?

The Punk Rocker cleared her throat. When not being outside in the dim light of the faint bonfire, Dexter could properly see more of her. She was extremely short, at least compared to Dexter, and didn’t look too old with that round face and big green eyes.

“Well, at the precise moment you could hear that first bang…” the girl said and looked around at the others “I got a prophecy”

“Well, yes we figured” Meg snorted

Vixen shot her another angry look and then she looked at the girl again. “Let’s hear the prophecy” she said with a calm voice.

The Punk Rocker nodded and closed her eyes. “The lonely twin is the only one, to trace the prison of the sun” she said “With children of boar and snake allied, the cursed eyes them will guide. A choice between future and past, and the twin will die at last”

Dexter didn’t know what that riddle was about, but it sent chills down his spine.

“We must answer to it” Mary said and looked at Chiron. He nodded in agreement.

“A choice between future and past, and the missing twin will die at last” another counselor said “Is it worth it? The missing twin will die at last, doesn’t that mean he’s going to die anyways?”

Bliss flew up from her chair, looking like she was about to shout at them, but Chiron spoke before she could open her mouth

“We can’t ignore the call of a god in need,” Chiron said “The world needs the sun. Besides, some wouldn’t appreciate the fact that you’re asking if it’s ‘even worth it’” Chiron glanced upwards.

The counselors silenced, Bliss and the other demigod sat down.

“Aah, the gods!” Dexter thought out loud. Everyone looked at him. “The gods wouldn’t appreciate it if we didn’t help that guy, right?”

Meg snorted. “Why’d you bring that dumbass anyways?” she asked Chiron and Dexter’s question was already forgotten.

Everyone looked at Chiron, even Dexter. He too wanted to know what he was doing there.

“With boar and snake by his side, the cursed eyes them will guide” Chiron recited of the prophecy “I believe Dexter here shall lead the quest”

Quest? What quest? And why should he lead it?

“You can’t be serious!” Meg took down her feet from the table and leaned forward. “We can’t let a dummy out on a quest!”

“For once, I actually agree with Meg!” Mary said glancing at Dexter then at Chiron. “I mean, he’s barely been here a week and has a lot more to learn…”

“But the prophecy was indeed talking about ‘cursed eyes’” Vixen objected, looking around at the other counselors “Dexter is the only one I know with a pair”

Meg snorted and glared at Dexter, as if it was his fault he had cursed eyes.

“Look, I don’t what you’re talking about” Dexter spoke up “But I think I rather stay…here”

He swallowed and looked at the others.

“See?!” Meg leaned over the table, pointing at Dexter while staring at Chiron “We can’t send that guy!”

A moment of silent followed. Dexter could sense how everyone was thinking their brains out.

“The prophecy does only mention him as a guide,” Mary thought out loud “Maybe we could send three others and he just guides them?”

“Three is the magical number, we should stick to that rule,” a tall guy with a tiara in his afro hair said “More demigods will attract more monsters.”

“Then, we could send two more experienced demigods with him?” another camper said. The others nodded in agreement.

“Someone who can fight!” Meg said and stabbed the table with her knife “An Ares’ camper would be the best”

“You guys aren’t the only ones ‘who can fight’” Mary snorted and rolled her eyes.

Meg shot Mary a death stare, grabbing her knife again. The two girls stared at each other, looking like they could start fighting in any second.

“With boar and snake by his side,” Vixen interrupted. “Would that mean Ares and Hermes?”

They looked at her.

“Maybe.” Mary said.

Dexter swallowed. He didn’t dare to disrupt their discussion, but he really didn’t want to go on the quest. It sounded too serious and dangerous, why would he have to do such a thing? Why not someone more experienced with the whole demigod-world?

“Do I really have to do it?” he asked, but the counselors didn’t hear him.

A hand was gently placed on his shoulder and almost made Dexter shriek of surprise. Chiron attempted to give him a warm, comforting smile, but Dexter could sense some sort of sadness in his eyes.

“I do believe you have to.” Chiron said with a serious voice

“But that’s not fair, I don’t-…”

“Life as a demigod is rarely fair” Chiron looked at the others around the table “But we will do what we can to help you out”

The counselors nodded in agreement.

“We’ve come to a solution,” Vixen said and folded her hands “We believe Dexter is meant for the quest.”


	9. Destiny's Children

“Any volunteers?”

The cabin number eleven was deadly silent. Apparently no one wanted to go to the quest. Dexter swallowed, trying to force down his growing panic. What if he had to go alone? 

“No one?” Vixen gazed around in the cabin. None of her siblings dared to meet her eyes. They twisted, looked at their shoes and hid behind each other. 

“Look” Vixen said and sighed “I don’t want to force anyone, but we really need one. And we have to save the god. We have to! Imagine a world without the sun, how fun would that be?”

Another silence followed. Dexter cleared his throat and got Vixen’s attention.

“Can’t you come with me?” Dexter asked her

“What?”

“You are an experienced demigod, aren’t you?” Dexter continued “Can’t you come along? That would feel…safest”

Vixen shook her head and looked distantly out one of the small windows “I can’t”

“Why?”

Vixen hesitated, but before she could say anything else someone stood up and said with a shaky voice:

“I’ll do it!”

Everyone looked at her. It was Terrwyn, the shy and quiet girl and the last one Dexter had imagined joining him on the quest. 

“A-are you sure?” Vixen was just as shocked as everyone else in the cabin.

Terrwyn nodded, but her shaky breath and pale face told them the reverse.

Vixen looked at Terrwyn with an unreadable face and then she cracked up in a smile.

“Alright, then” she said and ruffled Terrwyn’s hair “I believe you can do it!”

Dexter raised an eyebrow at the short girl. He thought they said something about sending “more experienced” demigods. Not that Dexter knew much about Terrwyn’s experiences, but he didn’t find her being that kind of person suited for an important and dangerous mission.

“I think it’s time for sleep, you two will be off tomorrow” Vixen clapped Dexter on his back “You need as much rest as you can get, quite of an adventure awaits you!”

When mentioning it, Dexter suddenly felt how tired he was. He yawned and followed his cabin mates to do their evening routine. A short while later Dexter crawled into his sleeping bag and stared up at the ceiling. He was really tired, but a worried feeling clenched his insides and left him awake way after the others had fallen asleep. Wishing it all just had been a weird dream, Dexter rolled over to the side, yawning a last time and finally doze off.

He dreamt of falling. Falling downwards with nothing but darkness around him. He could sense the ground far below him, racing closer towards him. Soon he could make out a trail in the ground and something following it, like a snake with glowing yellow eyes slithering down a path. When coming closer, he realized that the snake was a long black train and the path was the tracks. 

Dexter shut his eyes before he would hit the ground, but then it was like the world had turned upside-down. He felt like starting to fall upwards, away from the train tracks. Opening his eyes, Dexter saw how the space between him and the ground was enlarging and he was once again surrounded by only darkness. 

Then, all of a sudden, the falling feeling disappeared and he was standing up on an invisible floor. Purple and green glowing fog gathered around him and a big shadow arose to hover over him. It was no other that Madame Luck, the old lady Dexter had met right after waking up without memories. After everything that had happen to him, he already had forgotten about her.

Madame Luck leaned down to him, stretching out a giant palm and showed him a tiny object. It was the keychain he had gotten from her. 

“You are lucky” it read.

Dexter picked it up, looked at it and felt how anger bubbled up inside him.

“You are lucky”

Clenching his fist around it Dexter glared up at the giant Madame.

“What on earth does that mean?!” He yelled at her “Ever since I got it I have been anything but lucky!”

No answer.

Dexter let out a furious cry and threw the keychain as hard as he could at the Madame. The keychain flew right through her with a “plop”. Dexter blinked as rings started to expand from where the keychain pierced through her, like waves on water. Madame Luck was getting blurry, fluid and glittered in the dim light. Too late Dexter realized that the glimmering and fluid look reminded too much of water and Madame Luck fell apart and flooded over him. 

After tumbling around underwater for somewhat that had felt like an eternity, Dexter finally broke the surface and was hit by a blinding white light. His shades must have flushed away, because they were not sitting on his nose anymore. Reaching out his hand, Dexter felt a solid surface and he swam closer to it and heaved himself up from the water.

When he had gotten used to the bright light, Dexter could pick up more of his surroundings. He was sitting on white marble floor in a big room with white walls and wide windows showing a starry night sky outside and a big city far down below. The water behind him had disappeared and instead there was a wall. In one of the corners laid a dirty and bloody figure, but Dexter got no time to look closer at it when another figure hovered over him. The last thing he saw was a wide grin and a pair of icy cold eyes staring down at him.

Dexter woke up with a scream and sat up, panting. At first he thought he barely had slept at all, it was just as dark outside as he had gone to bed. Then he remembered that the sun was gone and he was supposed to bring it back. Dexter sighed and rubbed his eyes as he sat up and yawned. Looking around searching for any type of clock, he realized that there was no one in the cabin. From outside he heard shouting and raised voices in wild arguing. Dexter scratched the back of his head, slithered out of his sleeping bag and went out on the porch to see what was going on. 

“I’ve had enough of you, Home!”

Meg and Vixen stood by the campfire. Crowds of demigods stood on each side, forming two opposing teams. Mary, Bliss, Terrwyn and some from the Hermes’ cabin stood by Vixen while a large group of the rest of the campers stood on Meg’s side. Meg paced back and forward while talking angrily and now and then she stopped to yell Vixen in the face who scowled back at her. 

With a slight suspicion about what they were fighting about, Dexter crept closer to hear what they were arguing about.

“We agreed on we choose one hero each suiting for the quest and I chose her!” Vixen spoke with a calm tone to her voice “We’ve discussed the matter and we both believe she has to go”

“Nonsense!” Meg yelled back at her “You just think it’s funny to send away the worst possible demigods on quests, don’t you?!”

“Meg, please!”

“You think you’re such a freakin’ savior!” Meg poked Vixen in the chest “Vixen Home, the nice and friendly. Takes care of all the newcomers and camp’s other losers, until she sends them off to die!”

“That’s not true”. Vixen’s face darkened and she shot Meg a dangerous look. Then she took a deep shaken breath and tried to speak with the same calm voice again: “Listen. I and Ter has discussed the matter…”

“I don’t care if you and that coward has discussed it or not!” Meg snapped “You’re a fool, Home!”

Vixen sighed and pinched her nose bridge. “Why can’t you just listen?”

“Because you’re insane!” Meg yelled “You are seriously trying to send off camp’s worst demigod on a quest to save Apollo!”

“Since when did you start caring about Apollo?” Mary Kidd stepped forward with her one free hand on her hip.

“I don’t care about him!” Meg snorted, raising a threatening fist “Shut up, you filthy pirate, and don’t interfere!”

“Who you calling filthy?!” Mary clenched her fist, but Bliss held her back.

“Please, we’ve got no time for fighting…” she pleaded, looking up at Meg with big puppy eyes. She was still pale and her eyes were red from crying. 

Hesitation. Meg froze in her pose, looking back and forth between Vixen and Bliss. Then she let out an irritated groan and turned on her heels. “Fine, just fine! Do whatever you want, then!” she yelled before storming off towards cabin number five. 

Bliss turned towards Vixen and Mary, giving them a vague smile. Neither of them smiled back to her.

“Now, you’re the one she listens to!” Mary snorted and crossed her arms “Tell me your secret”

“Let’s not waste more time” Vixen disrupted, meeting Dexter’s gaze and nodded to him to come over. 

With his confidence even lower than it had been before, Dexter went over to them. Opening his mouth about to say something, but Vixen quieted him with one hand gesture. She turned towards the crowd of demigods that had gathered around the fight.

“Yes, you can go back to your activities now! Nothing more for you to see here” Vixen said with a sharp and commanding tone. 

Since nice and friendly was Vixen’s main characteristics, Dexter found it scary and odd with her serious look and harsh voice. The other campers must have felt the same way, because they left without any word. 

“You slept over breakfast” Vixen turned towards Dexter “We saved some food for you! Come!”

 

Dexter’s appetite hadn’t improved since dinner. Worrying too much about the quest, he rather felt like throwing up instead of eating. Vixen, Mary, Bliss and Terrwyn sat with him in the Hermes’ cabin and tried to talk him to eat. But it ended up with them forcing a sandwich and a glass of juice down his throat, while Mary repeatedly reminded him that he’d be less than useless if he didn’t eat.

“Mary, you’re not helping” Vixen sighed

“What? It’s true!” Mary held up her palm and raised an eyebrow “Running is the best thing he can do, if he don’t eat he won’t even be able to do that!”

“You’re not helping!” 

Mary rolled her eyes and muttered something quietly, but she didn’t say anything more.

“Now” Vixen gave Dexter a forced smile. “I think it’s time for you to set off”

Dexter took a shaky breath, rested his head in his palms and closed his eyes. It was time. He thought of all the memories he yet had gathered. Waking up without knowing who he was, meeting Chuck, Ray and Ban, running away from dangers and finally end up at Camp Half-Blood. Dexter didn’t want to leave. He felt safe and welcome there, but his luck didn’t want him to stay safe and happy. Feeling inside his pocket, Dexter found the keychain still being there. You’re lucky. Still not sure about what that meant or who Madame Luck was, Dexter was too scared to throw it away. “Don’t lose it, it may be of importance in the end” Madame Luck had said. What could it possibly be important for?

“Are you ready?”

Terrwyn’s quiet voice shook Dexter out of his thought. He looked up at her and the three elder demigods. They all looked back down at him, quiet, letting him take his time. Nodding thought he wasn’t ready at all; Dexter stood up and took a deep breath.

“I’ll never be, but let’s go anyways!” he said as confidently he could.

Vixen gave him and Terrwyn a backpack each and patted them on their shoulders. “We’ve packed some ambrosia and nectar for you” she told him “Along with some extra clothes and money –both mortal and mythological”

“Uuh, thanks!” Dexter’s voice almost broke. He cleared his throat and hoisted the backpack on his shoulders, took a deep breath and tried to push down his feelings. Looking at Vixen, Bliss and Mary, Dexter couldn’t hold back himself anymore. He threw himself forward and wrapped his long arms around them. Mary yelped, Vixen let out a surprised grunt and Bliss laughed.

“I’m sorry !” Dexter cried, hugging them even tighter “But you’ve been so nice to me!”

“I know I know” Bliss laughed and clapped Dexter on his back “I’m awesome”

“Yeah, you’re all awesome!” Dexter sobbed “I’ll miss you so much!”

“Ah, we’ll miss you too!” Vixen said and grinned widely “But we will meet again!”

“That’s right! If you don’t survive we’ll at least meet in Elysium!” Bliss assured

“You’re killing me!” Mary wheezed

Sobbing, Dexter let go of them and wiped his eyes from tears. He looked at them again and gave them a thankful smile. Vixen smiled back at him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Good luck!”


	10. The Journey Begins

They gathered at the top of Half-Blood Hill. Lanterns and small fires were scattered like dices allover camp to spread warmth and light, but it was far from as effective and cheerful as the sun. Dexter, Terrwyn, Chiron, Bliss, Mary, Vixen and the rest of cabin number eleven stood on the top of Half-Blood Hill. They silently watched as Meg and the third participant for the quest climbed the hill and joined the group. 

“HIM” Dexter shouted and pointed at the muscular boy with slim pants and brown mohican. 

“Yes, him” Meg responded, glaring into Dexter’s oily shades “The only one that’s not completely useless going on this darned quest!”

Troy proudly puffed out his chest and fixed the strap of his sports bag. Dexter pouted and wanted to snort an insult about the beef, but he knew that Meg was right. Troy had the most trained body of the three and he sure could fight like a bear – Dexter had seen it when spying on him. 

“I know you aren’t the bests of friends” Vixen said and looked between Troy and Dexter and Terrwyn “But you’ll have to lay your grudges aside and work as a team, for the sake of the quest… and the world” 

She looked up at the sky. Stars dotted the pitch black mass and gleamed like diamonds, but Dexter felt like something was missing.

“There’s no moon” he thought out loud 

“Artemis misses her brother” Terrwyn mumbled. Dexter gave her an asking look. “The moon can’t shine without the sun, after all”

“Oh” Dexter looked up at the sky again “That was… deep”

Troy snorted and rolled his eyes. “Are we going to stand and stare at the sky or maybe get on with the quest?”

“Sure!” Dexter said and took his eyes from the sky “Let’s go then!”

“Dexter…” Vixen laid a hand on his shoulder “Do you know where to go?”

“Uuh, no” Dexter stared at her “Should I know that?”

“You’re the guide, idiot” Troy snorted

“B-but I don’t know where to go!” Dexter looked nervously around at them “I-… I don’t…”

Mary dropped her head into her palm “I see no future for us” she mumbled, but Vixen stabbed her in the chest with her elbow.

“Well fortunately I have reflected a little” She told them “I’d suggest to search up Artemis and her hunters”

“Who are they?” 

“Artemis, the goddess” Bliss explained “Apollo’s twin sister. She and her gang with immortal hunters”

“Still mortal in combat” Mary added

“Mortal immortals…” Dexter said and scratched his head “I don’t get it”

“That’s not important” Vixen waved her hand, wanting to get to the point “Remember the first line of the prophecy. Artemis is most likely the ‘lonely twin’ it was talking about, now when Apollo is gone”

“Makes sense” Dexter said and he saw that the others nodded in agreement “So, where can we find her and her gang?”

“At the west coast” Vixen told them “I haven’t come in contact with them, but that’s where the chariot probably crashed down and probably where they would start searching”

“Okay, then” Dexter said, scratching his head and trying to get his mind around all the information. “Let’s go and have a look at the west coast” he then said and clapped his hands together.

“How will we get there, then?” Troy asked. 

The group looked at Dexter, like they were waiting for him to decide “Why are you all looking at me?” he asked “I’m not the leader, really…”

“Argus can give you a lift to New Your City, but then you are for your own” Vixen said with a serious tone

“Uh, yeah! We’ll plan it out in the car, then” Dexter assured her

“Right!” Vixen said and smiled warmly “Well, I’ll wish you good luck then!”

“You gotta do it, Dex!” Bliss said and threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. “Here, have this!”   
She let go off him and handed him a package of dirty cloth. “Go on, open it!”

Curious about what Bliss could possible give him, he unwrapped the sloppy-made present. A black belt fell out from the wrappings. Dexter held it up and inspected it. It was decorated with something that looked like empty bullet capsules. 

“Oh, a belt… Thanks!” Dexter said and tried to sound as grateful he could manage. In reality he wondered why they gave him a belt, his pants were rather too small that too big for him. 

Bliss snickered. “It’s not just an ordinary belt, Dexty!” she said and pointed at the bullet capsules “Those are knives!”

“Knives?” Dexter took a closer look. They were indeed no bullet capsules, but Dexter couldn’t see how they were knives. For him it looked just like sticks of bronze.

“It’s magical!” Bliss took the belt to demonstrate “Just grab one of these and pull… and voila!” She removed one of the sticks from the belt. Immediately it expanded in the other end, growing a flat blade of a throwing knife.

Dexter gasped, stared amazed at the knife. “WOW!” he said and summoned a knife himself. The blade was giving away some kind of glow and the edge was super sharp. ”Thanks a lot!” he said and looked at Bliss, this time really meaning it.

“Hehe, it was Mary who crafted them” Bliss told him, patted Mary on her shoulder.

“Bliss made me do them” Mary said and cleared her throat “It wasn’t like I wanted to or anything-…”

Dexter threw himself at the two girls and hugged them hard. Bliss laughed and returned the hug, but Mary muttered and tried to free herself.

“Just put the hilt towards the belt, and it’ll retransform and stick to the belt again” Mary said when Dexter had released them. “It’s ten knives in total. Don’t lose any or the pattern will get irregular”

Bliss demonstrated how to do while Mary talked. She put the knife towards the belt and it shrunk down into a stick and attached itself onto the belt, as it had been before.

Dexter did the same with his knife and it did the same. He held up the belt in front of him, grinning. “Thanks, again!” He said, trying to keep himself from tearing up. “That’s so nice of you!”

“Anything to help you staying alive!” Bliss said and gave him thumbs up.

Before Dexter could join Troy and Terrwyn and leave the camp, Meg pulled him aside and pulled his head down to her eye-level

“If I see that you come back unharmed, but my brother does not” the growled at him with a low voice “I’ll personally make sure you’ll wish you never was born!”

“Don’t worry!” Dexter assured her and defensively held up his hands “If anyone’s gonna come back home unharmed, it’s Troy!”

Meg didn’t look convinced, but let go of Dexter. They waved a last time, Bliss gave Dexter a one final hug and then the trio crossed the protecting boarder around the camp and went down the Half-blood Hill. 

A white van stood waiting for them down at the road. Argus the security guard of Camp Half-Blood; a giant man with blond hair and blue eyes all over his body, sat in the drivers seat and waited for them to get in. 

The chosen ones packed themselves inside the car. Because of his length, Dexter got to sit in the front seat next to Argus while Terrwyn and Troy got the backseat. They sat in silence for a few minutes and looked out the windows, but Troy repeatedly grunted impatiently and Dexter finally sighed.

“What?” he asked Troy bitterly and looked back at the brunette.

“Well” Troy said, crossing his arms “What’s you plan then, guide”

Dexter shrugged “We take the first lift to the west” he answered and looked forward “And try to find that Artemis and her hunters, I guess”

“And how do you know where to find then?” Troy asked

“…I don’t” Dexter sighed

Troy snorted and returned to look out the window again. “Great” he muttered “Just gotta search the whole west coast, then”

“We could try to iris-message them” Terrwyn mumbled

“Iris-message?” Dexter asked. He remembered Vixen mentioning something like that for him once “Those, rainbow-video-messages?”

Terrwyn nodded

“Didn’t that Vixen say she hadn’t been able to contact them?” Troy glared down at Terrwyn

“It’s worth a try, at least” Dexter said and looked back at them again “If it doesn’t work… well, we could always try find them at the west”

Troy snorted

“Better than just sitting and snorting, at least!” Dexter snapped back at him, facing forward and crossed his arms in annoyance.

They didn’t say much the rest of the car ride. Dexter could hear Troy complaining about Terrwyn’s bag, how it would be in the way when fighting.

“It should be functional, not stylish” Troy complained

“Says the one who has a perfect-styled mohawk” Terrwyn said.

Dexter couldn’t hold himself from laughing. Troy’s face turned pure red and he turned towards his window, mumbling something like: “It’s at least not in the way”

Giving Terrwyn a wide grin and both thumbs up, Dexter then returned to stare out the window. 

After almost three hours, they started to closing in to New York City. Dexter yawned and tried to stretch his limbs as much he could inside the car. He had taken the moment to nap; gathering energy for the coming adventure. Looking at out of the window, Dexter saw a sea of house roofs swishing by and now and then a dark park or a bright baseball field light up by tall spotlight. Dexter sighed longingly, imagining himself pitching that ball. 

The parks and house roofs was soon replaced by large industrial buildings. It looked less invitingly, since it was much poorer light up and many street lamps were broken. A chill ran down Dexter’s spine. He could barely believe that he had been somewhere around those buildings, running away from a giant fire breathing bull about just a week before. 

They reached a tunnel and Dexter couldn’t see anything but other cars for a few minutes. When they came out again, they were surrounded by skyscrapers and they had surely reached the center of New York City.

It had already reached lunchtime when they arrived to the city. The three demigods agreed on getting something to eat before setting off, so they went to the nearest McDonald’s. Dexter was surprised how much people there was in town and how unbothered they acted. To be the day after the sun fell down from the sky, Dexter started suspecting that the mortals didn’t notice at all. 

They ordered their burgers and sat down at a table in a corner of the restaurant and dug in to their food.

“The fastest way would be by plane” Troy said and stuffed the last piece of his burger in his mouth

“Bwo e eweg ghah mffne fo daff?” Dexter asked with mouth full of fries.

“Excuse you?” Troy wept off his own mouth with a paper towel and gave Dexter a disgusted look.

Dexter finished chewing and swallowed before trying again: “Do we even have money for that?” He asked, taking a sip from his Fanta Exotic.

Troy shrugged “Do you have any better idea, then?”

“Isn’t there any other magical way? Like, that smoke taxi!” 

“Smoke taxi?” Troy asked and frowned

“Yeah, that taxi with like, three chauffeurs that’s driving like crazy” Dexter told him “They drove me and Ray n’ Ban to camp. Got there in like, five minutes instead of three hours!”

Troy raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

“It’s true!” Dexter said and looked at Terrwyn “You know who they are, right?”

“The west coast is out of their reach” Terrwyn mumbled and dipped a fry in ketchup. 

Dexter’s mood sank. “Are you sure” he asked, lowering his burger “And there’s no other magical way of travelling?”

Terrwyn shook her head. “Not that I know of”

Dexter stuffed a handful fries into his mouth while sitting deep in thoughts. How on earth would he be able to guide them? He didn’t know more about what they were supposed to do than the other two did. If I were the sun, where would I land if I suddenly fell down? Dexter asked himself, but then shook his head.

“Well, how about we go and check out some… travel ways and destinations?” Dexter said, leaned back in his chair and burped loudly.

Troy wrinkled his nose and gave Dexter another disgusted look, but then he nodded in agreement. “Sure thing, guide”

They waited for Terrwyn to pack the rest of her burger in her backpack before they set off. To where? Dexter had not much of a clue. Aimlessly he wandered around, pretending to lead the team to a specified destination. He was more down in thought, considering about how he was about to guide the group. Without notice, Dexter had stepped out right in front of a driving car. The car driver jumped on the breaks and honked furiously at the blonde pedestrian. 

Dexter jerked back to the reality as Troy grabbed him and dragged him up on the sidewalk again.

“What the hades are you doing?” the muscle-boy yelled at him “I’m starting to think that you have no idea where you are going?”

“You just started to think that?” Terrwyn murmured and sighed

“Hey, guys. I’m sorry but-” Dexter started, but cut himself off. Staring at the building on front of him, and three words he had been told came back to him.

“What now?!” Troy growled and impatiently put his arms to his hips.

Dexter didn’t answer him. Instead he flew up to his feet, grabbed his two companions by their wrists and dragged them along inside the building. There were a lot of people inside, queueing for passing through the ticket controls. Somehow, Dexter managed to push himself and his two friends through the glass gates as a man slid his card to open them. The old man yelled after them, but Dexter kept on running with Troy and Terrwyn stumbling after him.

A whistle behind them told them that a guard had seen them and Dexter hurried as fast as he could down the escalators. They stumbled down a pairs of stair and finally got out on a platform. Dexter looked at the trains that stood on either side of them. 

“What in Ares are you doing?” Troy asked him, panting by the sudden sprint.

“I’m doing nothing-…” Dexter said between his breathes. “…inside your daddy” His heart was racing and his throat wheezed every time he breathed. 

A yell from the top of the stairs and they saw the guard hurrying down towards them. Dexter started running again towards the other end of the platform and to another stairway going back up. He chose another set of stairs leading down to a new platform, but turned on his heel before they reached the bottom and climbed upwards again. Third time’s the charm, Dexter thought and ran towards the next staircase. There was one single train standing at the platform, wheezing as if it was just about to set off. Dexter yelped and threw himself, Troy and Terrwyn onboard the train right before the doors closed and the train started chugging out of the train station.

Dexter collapsed on the train floor, trying to catch his breath. Terrwyn sat down on a seat, also panting but Troy remained standing, trying to act unbothered. The few passengers that had taken places in that carriage stared wide eyed at them. 

“You two are too weak” Troy snorted, sitting down in an empty seat opposite to Terrwyn “Can’t even run a little and you’re already dying”

“Hey, I’m a former smoker!” Dexter panted, holding up a finger “And I’m not a trainoholic!”

“I’m not a trainoholic!” 

“Yeah, right!” Dexter sat up on the train floor “Just goes down to the arena to kill some dummies whenever you get some spare time”

“How do you know what I do during my spare times?” Troy’s eyes narrowed 

“Ah, no nothing… I don’t know” Dexter’s words faded into a mumble and he looked down at his duct taped shoes. 

“However” Troy said, still glaring suspiciously at Dexter “Why did you drag us onto this train, even?”

Dexter bit the nail of his thumb, thinking about the moment of realization. “Follow the trains” he said finally and looked up at Troy and Terrwyn “She told me that, so I had to check and then I got this feeling about this train…”

“Who told you?” Troy asked

“You got a…feeling?” Terrwyn asked. 

They both leaned forward in curiosity, but before Dexter even started on his explanation the train stopped and the doors flew open. He stared out the door and saw a poorly lighten rail yard with several long lines of freight trains. Dexter’s gaze fell over a goods wagon where the doors stood wide open and he got a gnawing feeling that he just had to go there; it was their way forward!

Dexter shouted, grabbed his friends and dragged them out of the train before the door could close on them. Before Dexter could drag his friends away from the platform and towards the train, Troy yelled and broke free from Dexter’s grip.

“Okay, now you tell us what in Ares’ scarred face you’re doing!” He demanded and stomped his foot on the concrete floor of the platform.

“Later! We gotta hurry!” Dexter said, trotted impatiently on place and glanced over at the goods train “Please, we may miss it!”

“No, I won’t take another step before you explain!” Troy demanded and crossed his arms.

“Alright! Listen” Dexter said quickly, still glancing over now and then towards the wagon “I had a dream where Madame Luck, a really weird fortune teller, told me to ‘follow the trains’ and now I get this feeling of where to go!”

Troy and Terrwyn blinked and stared at him as if he was a mad man. Before any of them could say anything, Dexter shrieked, looking at the train which had whistled and slowly started rolling. 

“We’ll miss it!” Dexter cried and searched for a quick way towards it.

Troy grunted, muttering something for himself and then he glared at Dexter. “No, we won’t!” He said and jumped down on the train tracks and started running. 

Dexter stared after Troy, surprised that he accepted Dexter’s explanation. He looked down at Terrwyn, who just had jumped down from the platform and waited for him to come along.

“This is crazy” she said when Dexter jumped down to her, grabbed her hand and started running.

Troy had already climbed up inside the goods van when they finally had caught up to it. They struggled to keep up to its speed and it was only gaining more for every second.

“Hurry!” Troy shouted, stretched out his hand to help them up into the carriage. 

Dexter pushed Terrwyn in front of him and helped her up to reach Troy who pulled her up and returned to help Dexter. His legs ached and felt heavier for every step and his trachea felt as thin as a straw. How much he even pushed himself to run faster, the train was outrunning him. 

“Come on, you idiot!” Troy shouted and got down to his knees to shorten the distance between them “Jump!”

Gathering the last of his stamina, Dexter leaped forward. He felt Troy’s hand grabbing his arm and started pulling him upwards. Dexter tried to help as much as he could, but it wasn’t easy with his feet dangling in the air and the wind trying to drag him outwards. Another pair of hands grabbed his other arm and together Troy and Terrwyn pulled Dexter inside the wagon. 

They collapsed in a pile and took a long moment of just catching their breath. Even Troy groaned of exhaustion. None of them spoke or moved for a long while, and the first to break the silence was Terrwyn.

“I hope your feelings are leading us to the right place” she mumbled and wept sweat off her face with the sleeve of her jacket.

“I hope so too” Dexter mumbled, staring up at the ceiling.

Rustling as from wrapping paper caught his attention and he looked up. Terrwyn had opened her backpack and brought up the half of a burger she saved from her lunch. 

Dexter’s stomach rumbled longingly by the sight of the food. Why didn’t I think of that? He thought bitterly and faced away from Terrwyn. Crawling towards one of the corners of the carriage, Dexter leaned towards the wall and yawned.

“I guess we should rest while we can” He mumbled and yawned again.

“I think you should tell us what’s going on” Terrwyn said, her green eyes piercing through his aviator shades. 

“I agree” Troy said “I’d like an explanation why we’re ‘following the trains’” 

Dexter from Terrwyn to Troy. He didn’t see why he wouldn’t tell them and they did deserve to know. “Alrighty then” Dexter said and cleared his throat “It all started when I woke up at a railway…”


	11. Our Trios Down to Two

According to Troy’s wrist watch, the train went on for at least a day before it stopped; it was hard to tell with the constant darkness outside. No one complained when Dexter detrained without a word. They could see workers everywhere, driving tractors and trucks, unloading the freight cars. Fortunately, the darkness around the spotlights were thick enough for the workers too not notice them and the motors of the vehicles were noise enough so the trio didn’t need to be quiet.

 

Not that any of them ever bothered.

 

They were all too hungry to be able to think about anything else than finding somewhere to eat. Even Terrwyn moaned repeatedly for food while they crept out of the rail yard. After a few hundred meters, they spotted a building with a large sign saying “GODLY DELIGHT” they all agreed on looked like a diner. Moaning they hurried across the road and entered.

 

Loud music and the smell of cooked food hit Dexter in the face when he opened the door and made his mouth start watering. The restaurant was that crowded that Dexter had to push himself through the people to get to the counter.

 

Dexter could feel Terrwyn pulling in his jacket, gesturing him to bend down towards her “This doesn’t feel good” Terrwyn mumbled in his ear.

 

“Same here” Dexter replied “My stomach feels like it had been turned inside out!”

 

“No, not-…” Terrwyn continued, but Dexter ignored her and slammed his fist onto the bar table to get the hostess’ attention.

 

“I want three portions of anything” he shouted to the woman, trying to be heard over the loud music “Just make it quick!”

 

Troy pushed forward and sat on a barstool next to Dexter “Yeah, Anything” he grunted, laying down his head on the wooden surface “Quick. Starving”

 

The woman, whose nametag said Lamia, looked down at the three, her eyes narrowed. She leaned forward as to take a close look at them and sniffed the air. Then she tilted her head and smiled warmly down at the three “Of course, young ones” she said with a silky voice “Wouldn’t you like our buffet, then? It’s a special offer for -ah- your kind”

 

“Buffet?” Dexter beamed at her “Sounds great”

 

“I’m so hungry I could eat a horse!” Troy said and an old man next to him grunted offensively. “What?” Troy snubbed at him, but didn’t wait for an answer since the hostess showed them the way to their table.

 

Lamia led them to a separate room of the diner. Walls, tables, chairs and the table cloths had all hues of deep red along with the table holding all different sorts dishes and sweets.

 

Dexter’s stomach roared and his already watered mouth overflowed that drool started trickle down his chin.

 

“What are you waiting for, heroes?” the hostess asked and smiled at them “Dig in!”

 

Dexter laughed and rushed towards the buffet, looking at all the food. There was pizza, chicken wings, pasta sauces and all different sorts of salads. Lamia poured up any drink they wanted in golden cups and kept refilling so the cup never became empty.

 

Filling his plate with as much he had room for Dexter then sat down at one of the tables and started wolfing. Troy sat down next to him, but with two full plates instead of one. Terrwyn on the other hand had put one single pizza slice on her otherwise empty plate.

 

“Are you not feeling well?” Dexter asked her, scowling down at her plate “You said you were starving just a moment ago!”

 

“Not…Yes…I mean…” Terrwyn mumbled nervously and poked her pizza with her fork. “I’m fine”

 

“Well, you gotta eat then!” Dexter said, picking up a chicken wing with his fingers “Who knows what’ll happen next on our quest”

 

Terrwyn discreetly shook her head and Dexter scowled back at her.

 

“What is it?” He asked while chewing on the wing “You’re acting weird”

 

“Leave her be” Troy sighed, taking a sip from his glass “If she’s not eating, then it’s her problem”

 

“But, hey!” Dexter frowned at Troy “Who aren’t hungry after not having food for a day?”

 

Freezing with his fork halfway to the mouth, Troy straightened and looked from Terrwyn to Dexter. “Maybe…” he said after a moment of silence “That sounds quite weird”

 

“Is something wrong, my dear child?” Lamia asked and poured up more Fanta in Dexter’s glass.

 

“No, not at all!” Terrwyn answered with a squeak “We’re all fine!”

 

Impressed, Dexter looked at Terrwyn. He hadn’t heard her tell any stranger even a sentence, and now she had uttered two!

 

“Are you sure?” the woman insisted, still smiling widely “You don’t seem like have eaten much. You should really need some more flesh on your bones!”

 

“I’m not so hungry” Terrwyn’s trembling voice wasn’t much more than a whisper. “We can leave now”

 

“What?!” Dexter and Troy looked offended at Terrwyn

 

“If that’s so, then” the smile on the woman’s face stiffened and she then turned towards Dexter “How about we go and take care of that payment?”

 

Dexter blinked, staring up at her.

 

“Your friends can wait here and maybe get to eat some more” the hostess said, throwing a glance towards Terrwyn and then back at Dexter’s shades.

 

“O-okay then” Dexter slowly stood up from his chair, quickly whispering to Troy to prepare some doggie bags before he smiled innocently at the hostess.

 

Lamia led him away further back in the diner. Dexter was surprised how big it actually was, from the outside it looked pretty small.

 

They entered a room on the other side of a corridor, also colored bloody red. The room was quite small and the walls and floor was just naked concrete. In the far end of the room was a big pile of dirty rags and buckled metal scraps. A chill crept down Dexter’s spine, causing the hair on his body to stand on end. Why did they have to enter such a room to pay for some food?

 

Lamia had closed the door behind him and turned towards him, smiling.

 

“You know what” Dexter said and took a step backwards “I just remembered I paid last time we ate; I think the other’s got more money…”

 

“Oh, sweetheart” Lamia said in her smooth and silky voice “You won’t need money. Here we’ve got another… currency here”

 

Dexter’s face flushed almost as red as the walls of the corridor outside. “H-hang on!” he stuttered, taking another step backwards “I can’t! That’s immoral… and illegal!”

 

Lamia stared shocked at Dexter for a short moment before she threw her head back and laughed coldly and wicked. Another chill was sent down Dexter’s spine and he took a step backwards. She looked at him with bloody red eyes and snickered, slowly walking towards him.

 

“Don’t think yourself lucky, you naught boy” She said and snickered. Her face was slowly changing. It seemed like melting and dripping off, revealing a wicked and distorted face. The skin crumpled and turned ash gray, followed the shape of her skull more precisely. Her nose steered off to the left with a horrible cracking noise and her mouth stretched wider, bursting open her lips and revealing a set of needle sharp fangs.

 

Dexter shrieked, stumbled backwards and fell over the pile of garbage. He found himself sitting on a dented shield and a crooked sword stuck up right next to him. Scowling, Dexter took another look at the sword. It looked familiar. The same bronze color and it had the same sort of glow as the blades of camp half-blood. It was celestial bronze!

 

Feeling his whole body shaking, Dexter looked up at Lamia’s misshaped face. He didn’t have to guess what happened to the owners of all this trash. Godly Delight, how come he hadn’t seen that before? Dexter swallowed, feeling nausea climbing up his throat. What had it been in the food they had eaten?

 

“You…” Dexter croaked, his mouth felt as dry as a desert but he forced himself to talk. Distract her. Put her on other thoughts while he tried figuring out how to get out alive “You’re serving demigods? Like in, making food of us?”

 

The hostess chuckled. “Oh, yes my dear child” she answered and wetted her lips “Your friends will be such a delight for my hungry customers outside. Especially that big one, much beef on his arms”

 

Dexter gulped, almost too scared to ask her next question. “The buffet…was it…?” Dexter started, but Lamia cut him off

 

“Why should I waste such fine godly meat to feed you?” she snapped and hissed angrily “No, that was a stray dog and a few overrun cats”

 

The nausea sank down a bit. Relieved that he at least hadn’t become a cannibal, Dexter almost smiled. Then he remembered that he was as good as dead anyways and tried to focus on coming up with a plan.

 

“So… ehm…” Dexter started, but Lamia snorted irritated and lunged herself forward. Dexter yelped and tried to jump out of the way, but he was too slow. Lamia’s long and clawed fingers grabbed around his throat and pressed him towards the wall.

 

“Don’t you think others have tried the same trick on me, child?” she hissed, spitting him in the face. “They’ve already tried, look what happened with them” She nodded at the pile of belongings of her previous victims. Her other hand stroke Dexter’s baby soft cheek “You’re not of the finest sort, almost too old” she said in a disappointed voice “But I’m starving”

 

“Wait!” Dexter wheezed “Please, don’t!”

 

Lamia laughed “You’re such a whiney coward” she said and her eye twitched “Not at all like my eldest son. He was brave, the same age as you. Right about to turn into a man when she took him from me” Her voice trembled of anger and hatred “She took away all my children!”

 

“Why don’t you talk with her about it” Dexter whimpered, smiling hopelessly “I don’t have anything to do with that”

 

“Why do other gets to see their children grow up to fine heroes, but not me?!” Lamia yelled in Dexter’s face, spitting salvia all over his face “I’ll kill you! I’ll eat you! I’ll make the dogs suffer the same pain I did!”

 

Lamia roared as she gaped as much as her jaws allowed and leaned forward, as if trying to bite Dexter’s face.

 

Dexter yelled and kicked around with his legs in panic, eventually kicking her in the stomach. Wheezing, the grip Lamia had around his throat loosened and Dexter took this opportunity to push her away from him. Attempting to run for the door, Lamia roared and Dexter felt something hitting him hard on the back, causing him to fall over.

 

Hissing and growling furiously, Lamia pinned Dexter’s arms against the concrete floor. “You. Are. Mine!” she roared and Dexter felt a sudden pain in the external part of his right ear. Lamia chuckled as her teeth buried deeper through his ear, but then she grunted of annoyance. Dexter’s shades had come in the way and got stuck between her teeth. When she couldn’t spit them out, Lamia was forced to let go of Dexter’s other arm to winkle it out.

 

As soon as his arm got free, Dexter hit the she-monster on the jaw several times. Lamia howled and let go of Dexter’s other arm. He spun around from under her and pushed her away from himself.

 

“You won’t get away!” Lamia spluttered and readied herself to lunge at him again, but she froze in the action.

 

“What now?” Dexter asked, sneering at her in triumph “Feeling scared?”

 

With his aviator shades dangling from between her teeth, Lamia stared into Dexter’s ice-colored puppy eyes.

 

Lamia trembled and fell down onto her knees, but she didn’t break their eye contact. Neither did Dexter. His icy blue eyes stared back into her blood red ones, seeing how her anger and hatred turned into pure horror. Lamia flinched as Dexter took a step towards her, reaching out his hand and snatched his shades from her mouth. Then he turned on his heels and ran for it.

 

Hurrying out of the room, Dexter sprinted down the red corridor. He could hear crashes and thumps from inside the buffet room. When entering the room, Dexter was met by total chaos. The whole place had been turned upside down; tables and chairs were knocked off their legs, broken in two and smashed to pieces. Shattered plates were spread all over the floor and cutlery stuck out from the walls, as if someone had used them to practice dart.

 

The worst of all were the monsters and there were a lot of them. There was everything from one eyed giants and women with serpents for legs to weird looking seal-dog hybrids. There was even a horned centaur; the old man who had grunted at Troy. Some of the monsters were fighting each other, but the rest had their attention on two demigods standing in a corner.

 

Troy had his crooked blade leveled and a shield on his left arm, trying to hold off the monsters. Terrwyn stood behind him with a dagger in her hand and her back pressed against the wall, staring up at the monsters. She didn’t move at all except for her hands, trembling violently that she could drop her dagger any moment.

 

“Guys!” Dexter cried and attempted to run towards them, but then he suddenly yelped. Someone was clinging onto him, digging their claws through his leather jacket and into his shoulders. Lamia hissed like an angry cat and tried to drag him down onto the ground.

 

“Get…Off..!” Yelled Dexter, trying to throw the demigod-eater off his back.

 

Stumbling around bumping into tables, Dexter did his best to stay up on his feet. It wasn’t an easy task with a heavy monster on his back, pulling in his jacket and scratching his head with her blade-like claws. Dexter then slipped on a gobbled and fell over with Lamia on his back. She hit her head on the edge of a table and slid off Dexter’s back to collapse on the floor.

 

“Kill her!” Troy yelled from the corner. “Unsheathe you freaking knives for Ares’s sake!”

 

Dexter winced and looked down at his belt. That’s right! De did have weapons to defend himself with. He summoned a knife, held it up in the air above Lamia and looked down at the unconscious humanoid. She were completely defenseless in her state, was it really right to stab someone like that? Wouldn’t that be…murder?

 

“What are you hesitating for? Finish her off!” Troy yelled and Dexter looked up at him.

 

The room was almost completely empty on monsters, only the old centaur were left and Troy had an advantage, that horse body were too clumsy and the centaur slid around on plates and slippery food. How Troy had managed to take care of all the monsters by himself was astonishing. That boy really knew his thing; Dexter had seen it himself while spying on him at camp.

 

“Watch out!” Troy cried over his shoulder

 

A fist hit Dexter under the chin and

 

“I’ll remove those eyes of yours!” she hissed, but with her mouth full, Dexter couldn’t hear much other than spluttering noises. She started crawling over Dexter, about to pin hon to the floor.

 

Panicking, Dexter tried to kick her off himself, but she pressed him to the floor and locked his legs. With an evil and horrible cackle, she licked her lips. Dexter tried to peek between his arms and catch her gaze while avoiding to get his eyes poked out, but Lamia was not looking directly at him but at somewhere around his forehead.

 

“Because you’re so troublesome, I’ll have to kill you first” she said with a soft voice, but she had low and demonic undertones, which send chills down the tall blonde’s spine. “Usually, I like to eat my food fresh and alive” She continues, biting her lip “But thinking about how much trouble you’ve caused me…” With an angry hissing noise, she spat him in the face “You’ll pay for everything you’ve done!”

 

Lamia leaned forward and Dexter felt how her hands searched for his throat. “No!” Dexter wheezed and tried to push her away from him “St-…op”

 

Then Lamia suddenly froze, her eyes widening and turned down at the blade sticking out of her chest. Letting out a final gasp, the demigod-eating monster dissolved into golden dust.

 

Dexter panted, massaging his sore throat and looked up at Troy. “T-thank y-…” Dexter croaked, but Troy cut him off with a painful slap on his cheek “Whatthe…?! WHY?”

 

“Shut up, you useless piece of crap!” Troy snapped and harshly pulled Dexter up on his feet “Take your shades and that thing over there before we get in more trouble!” Troy gestured towards the corner where Terrwyn still was standing.

 

“’That thing’…? Wha-, Terrwyn? She’s a person, Troy!” Dexter stared at Troy, not believing what he just had said.

 

“I don’t care!” Troy turned on his heels and hurried out of the now empty diner.

 

Dexter quickly picked up his ray-bans, grabbing Terrwyn by the hand and dragged her along and hurried after Troy “What are you saying?! “ Dexter hissed at Troy “She’s another human being, your friend, you don’t objectify-”

 

“My friend?!” Troy spun around and faced Dexter, catching himself right before looking him in the eyes and decided to glare down Terrwyn instead. “Hiding like a scared rabbit, leaving me alone to deal with a bunch of monsters, she’s not my friend!”

 

“She was scared!” Dexter stepped in front of Terrwyn, shielding her from Troy’s glares. He intentionally kept the shades in his hands instead of putting them on. Come at me, Troy!

 

“That’s the freakin problem!” Troy glared up at Dexter’s forehead. “She starts whimpering if one even looks at her! She’s a worthless coward! Camp’s cursed loser and the worst possible being for going on a quest at all!”

 

“Cut it out, Troy!” Dexter growled clenching his fists as anger started boiling up inside him.

 

“And you, you good-for-nothing idiot! Can’t even kill a single monster-!”

 

“SHUT UP!” Furiously Dexter screamed and stomped on the ground, his hands shaking of anger and his breath wheezing through his gritted teeth.

 

Taken by surprise, Troy had flinched and stared up at Dexter, meeting his eyes.

 

“That gives you no damn reason to insult her!” His voice trembled as he spoke “We’re not the same training-maniac as you, Troy! You’re maybe the best at fighting, but I’m sure both of us can do stuff you can’t do!”

 

Troy didn’t answer, only stared back at Dexter with great terror. Dexter closed his eyes, he didn’t like seeing people get that terrified. Troy dropped down on his knees and whimpered. ”Fine!” he finally whispered “I’m done. You can go on with your suicide-mission!”

 

“What?” Dexter blinked in confusion, forgetting his anger “You can’t leave us!”

 

“I’m not planning to die for a quest that’s doomed to fail!” Troy got up on shaky knees and faced away from Dexter and Terrwyn “Good luck without me, you’ll need it!” and with that he left, walking down the dark street and turning a corner.

 

Dexter stared emptily at Troy for a quick moment and the anger returned. “What about Apollo being imprisoned?! Are you just going to ignore the maybe only chance to save the world from the eternal darkness?!” he yelled after the brunette, but he was never to receive an answer “Yeah, just leave you! Go back to camp and tell them all how you abandoned the world, just to save your own skin! Who’s the coward now, huh?!”

 

Dexter grabbed Terrwyn by her hand again and dragged her along back towards the trains.


	12. Team Newbee

As his anger cooled down, it struck down on Dexter what just had happened. Troy had left them. The one and only that could truly fight well was gone. Dexter felt vulnerable, as unsafe like never had felt before. No beefy boy to protect him and Terrwyn, it was only them from now on. If any other monster appeared, Dexter feared they wouldn’t make it out. 

Dexter took a shaky breath and tried not to start hyperventilate. He couldn’t help but doubting. What if Troy was right? What if this quest really was doomed to fail, the prophecy itself had predicted it. The others didn’t expect them to succeed either, so why would they risk their lives for something that they already knew would fail.

“Please, don’t stop” a weak voice almost whispered. Terrwyn looked up at Dexter, gently pulling in his arm. He had stopped in his tracks without noticing. “We should keep on walking”

“Ah, alright” Dexter mumbled and started walking again. A short moment passed before any of them spoke, and thus both of them opened their mouths to start speaking at the same time, but quickly closed them again. “You go first” Dexter cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head.

“Um, okay” Terrwyn said weakly “We… We should keep on walking”

“We are” Dexter scowled down at his feet to make sure they hadn’t stopped again. 

“I mean, we shouldn’t go back home” Terrwyn clarified. “I- I don’t want to return as a failure…”

“Oh…” Dexter looked down at her, trying to read her expression, but it was just as impossible as always with her bang combed neatly over her eyes. How does she see anything? “They’d go harsh on you, I guess” Dexter finally said.

Terrwyn nodded. Another moment of silence followed. Dexter bit his lips, trying to restrain himself for asking, but he couldn’t hold it. “What…” He started, wandered with his gaze while searching for the right words “What happened. Back at the restaurant, you seemed paralyzes and…” His sentence died off in an awkward mumble, but he glanced down at her and hoped she would get what he was asking about.

“I was scared!” Terrwyn said with a surprisingly sharp voice, had Dexter made her mad? She pouted her lips and pulled her hand out of Dexter’s. 

“I- I’m sorry…” Dexter gulped and stared down at the ground “Forget it… it was stupid of me to ask…”

They finally reached the rail field where they had stopped with the train. The gates were closed and locked, and Dexter couldn’t see any worker left inside, they all must have gone home for the day. Or at least Dexter assumed so; it was hard to tell without the sun being available. We don’t even have a watch anymore, Dexter thought bitterly. It left along with Troy. 

“Let’s find a way in!” He thought out loud and started following the barbed fence in search for anywhere to get past. After running back and forth without finding any way to get under the fence, Dexter kicked it in frustration. “Stupid thing!” he cried “Can’t even get past a simple fence!”

“We could climb it” Terrwyn mumbled, but she had to repeat herself several times before she finally got Dexter’s attention.

“What? Climb it?” Dexter looked up at the three lines of barbed wire that ran paralleled with the fence “But we’ll cut us on the wire”

“Use your jacket to cover it” Terrwyn sighed “and then climb over”

“Ooh, that’s smart!” Dexter said and gave Terrwyn a grateful pat on her shoulder before approaching the fence. Being so tall, Dexter could easily throw his jacket over the wire, but from earlier experience he knew it was another thing to actually climb over it. “I could lift you up so you easily can get over” he said and looked down at Terrwyn and opened his arms, ready for scooping her up.

“I’m fine” she muttered and walked past Dexter’s inviting arms. She climbed with ease and before Dexter knew it, she had dropped down on the other side in a smooth landing. 

“That was… great!” Dexter burst out and beamed at her.

“Just get over here…” Terrwyn mumbled.

“Alright!” Dexter said, pushed his crooked sunglasses up his nose and made a gesture as if he was rolling up his non-existing sleeves. Walking up to the fence and testing out different grips while he tried to think out a way of start his climbing. After trying and failing a couple of times, Dexter coughed embarrassedly and made his final attempt. Jumping up as high as he could and leaning over the fence, Dexter somehow managed to slither over his jacket and tumble down on the other side. Dexter groaned out of pain and remained lying on the asphalt. He curled up on the side, hugging his legs while falling deeper into his misery. How come he can’t do anything like he imagine it, he just has to mess everything up!

Dexter sighed deeply and let out a weak sob. It burned under his eyelids of exhaustion and his body felt too heavy, he couldn’t manage to move a finger. Terrwyn knelt down beside him and poked him carefully and Dexter’s whole body jerked. “That tickled…” he mumbled and tried to suppress a smile 

“We should find someplace better to rest” Terrwyn mumbled back and poked Dexter again, making him jerk again and let out a snort that could’ve been a laugh.

“You’re right” he sighed and attempted to sit up with a loud groan “We can’t… give up yet!”

Terrwyn nodded in agreement and pulled in his arm to help him up to his feet. Spots danced before Dexter’s icy eyes and he had to grab the fence to prevent him for losing his balance. When he felt ready to start walking, he nodded at Terrwyn and gestured towards the dark yard. Terrwyn didn’t move from where she was standing and after Dexter had given her a questioning look, she pointed up at the fence. “Oh, right!” Dexter let out as he noticed what she pointed out “My jacket! How could I ever forget you, baby?”

With quite difficulty, he unhinged his precious from the barbed wire and pulled it on. “Now!” he gave Terrwyn a weak smile and she nodded back at him. 

As they went on, Dexter realized that he could barely see anything in darkness. Terrwyn pointed out it wasn’t that dark, since there actually were several lamps lighting the yard up. But for Dexter, anything outside the spotlight seemed pitch black. Before, he had thought it was because of his shades, but he couldn’t tell any difference when he had them on or not. However, he tried to look around for that inviting look he had seen before the other day. Like the train that had brought them to this very place. It would probably lead him further to his final destination. But… Dexter froze in place and stared out in the empty air. I put us in a trap, is it really something to trust? Dexter bit his lip and scowled. What if he guided Terrwyn into something even more dangerous? Would they manage to survive another monster-attack? Truthfully, it was all because of Troy they were still alive. 

It was then he saw it. Barely, only outlines in the black mass in front of him. Another goods van. It had the same, familiar shimmer around it, waving at him to come aboard. Dexter felt convinced, how could this not be the right way? 

“You found it?” Terrwyn asked, breaking the silence and looked the way Dexter was staring at. 

“Yeah” Dexter replied “Could we trust it?”

“It lead us to monsters” Terrwyn mumbled and paused a short moment before continuing; “The more danger, the closer we are, I bet”

Dexter’s heart sank, he felt worried. Could they handle something worse without Troy? But at the same time, he knew that what Terrwyn just said made sense “I guess you’re right” he sighed “But I don’t like it”

“Me neither” Terrwyn agreed. They looked at each other and nodded before boarding the van.

This one was packed with pallets of paving stones, cable reels and other stuff that could be found on a building site. There wasn’t much room for him and Terrwyn, but they managed to squeeze themselves in between the goods and the van’s door. Without saying much more to each other, they quickly entered the land of nightmares.

Dexter found himself standing on the roof of a sky scraper. The sky above was just as dark and lifeless as the usual one in the real world, but down below him an enormous city reached out to the horizon. Its pretty light reflected in the wide river and Dexter would find it beautiful if he hadn’t gotten those creepy chills running down his spine. The wind was chilly and the thick darkness made him feel claustrophobic. 

He heard someone talking and saw a dark figure stand by the fence a stone’s throw away, gazing out over the city. They hadn’t noticed him yet and Dexter thought of sneaking away, but what they muttered made him curious enough to stay. 

“Oh, she really thinks she chose the right one!” the figure spat out to themselves “Gullible, cowardly and oh so weak he is! But what a golden heart he has” The figure snorted, uttering the last line with obvious sarcasm. 

They gritted their teeth in rage, but before they said anything more they suddenly froze. So did Dexter, because he had a horrible feeling of the other just became aware of his presence. The figure turned their head and glared directly at Dexter. “Speaking of the devil!” their voice was dangerously smooth. They wore a red leather jacket and black jeans to which a whip was attached to on the right side. Black curly hair framed a pointy and tight face with a crooked nose and low cheekbones. The worst was the eyes. Dark and evil, pinning him to the floor as they slowly walked up to him. Somehow, that face looked familiar to Dexter even thought he was sure that he had never met the person before, who at that moment grinned up at him. Dexter backed up, didn’t want the stranger to come too close to him, but eventually he reached the edge of the roof and bumped into the fence preventing him from falling down. The stranger gave him an amused smirk. “Look at you!”, they said mockingly. “Trembling like a scared rabbit!”

Dexter clenched his fist, trying to keep them from shaking which only seemed to amuse the other even more. “Who-… who are you?”, he asked them and gulped. “What do you want from me?”

“From you? No, I don’t need anything from you”, they snorted and crossed their arms. “I simply just wanted to take a look on you”. Their eyes narrowed and they leaned forward; their nose almost touching Dexter’s. Their breath smelled of tobacco and alcohol, making Dexter gag and forced him to face away. 

The other snickered menacingly and gave Dexter another smirk. “I got nothing to worry about”, they said with confidence, attempting to stroke his chin with a pointy finger. But suddenly, they flinched and stumbled backwards with a shocked expression on their smooth face. They both stared at each other in silence and Dexter could see the anger boil up in the stranger’s black eyes. “You bloody cheater!” the stranger hissed with words that Dexter recognized from ancient Greek lessons he had had with Vixen at camp. 

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Dexter stuttered and clung onto the fence behind him. “I haven’t done anything! N-not intentionally at least-…”

“Quiet, boy!” They roared at him and slammed their fist against the fence. Dexter gasped and froze in place; not even daring to breathe.

The stranger glared at the city below them and muttered in ancient Greek. They glanced over at Dexter and he would have whimpered if he wasn’t scared that they would get angry by it. Suddenly the other snickered, which escalated into evil laughter. “How pathetic” They stated and smirked, turning their black gaze towards Dexter again. “So the only reason you’re alive is because of her”

“Who?” Dexter finally croaked, but either the other ignored him or his voice was too weak for them to hear.

They stepped away from Dexter and he watched their back as they continued to mutter to themselves. A black eye glimpsed over their shoulder, gazing at Dexter who felt icy chills running down his spine. “She thinks she can protect you” They said, turning towards him. Surrounded by a black aura that was so dark it contrasted the inked sky above them. Their evil cackle echoed inside Dexter’s head. They raised their hand, pointing at him. “You’re on your own now, boy!” their voice doomed and with a flash, Dexter felt himself being shot through the fence behind him and he was once again falling into total darkness.


End file.
